Roughly $1.4 million has been pruned from the Butler County 2016 budget of roughly $150 million.

County Commissioner Leslie Osche, board chairman, said these initial cuts were made after department heads and row officers were asked to reduce expenses.

“This is what they came back with,” she said.

Osche stressed these reductions, which were made to operations and capital expenses, are only the start.

“This is just surface savings in the beginning,” she said.

Commissioner Kim Geyer agreed.

“We will be having more cuts,” Geyer said.

She said this was the first phase of the process.

“It’s not over yet,” Geyer said. “We’re going to continue to hold expenses. We’re going to do it without raising taxes.”

The prior board originally set the 2016 budget with a 3-mill property tax hike. The current board did not reverse the move, citing fiscal woes.

They subsequently set a goal to reduce expenses by $5 million in the next few years.

Commissioner Kevin Boozel pointed out the list does not include cost-savings that have not been realized yet.

“There’s a lot of things going on beyond (the list),” he said.

Boozel cited print management efforts under way and a recent switch in banking services as additional steps taken.

Although Osche last week cited a $1.6 million amount last week, she said that was due to some discrepancies over 911 wireless funds that were unspent.

Steve Bicehouse, director of county emergency services, said those funds already are allotted and cannot be spent elsewhere.

Out of the cuts, emergency services made the most at $381,468.

Bicehouse said adding two new 911 dispatchers to handle Butler City calls will reduce overtime costs that were initially budgeted.

He said additional savings came from fine-tuning actual salary costs.

“We worked closely with the controller’s office,” Bicehouse said.

The Butler County Prison had the next highest reduction at $160,000.

Warden Joe DeMore previously said cuts were made to numerous areas of his $11.7 million budget.

County court pared $121,805 from its $11 million budget by shrinking overtime and supplies.

The commissioners sheared $108,700 from their allotment.

Most of the decrease comes from the elimination of an administrative post.

Geyer said other cuts came from eradicating entire line items.

“We eliminated overtime in the office completely,” she said.

Geyer said the current commissioners’ budget of $758,000 is the lowest in six years.

“Our budget in the commissioners office is well below 2010 levels,” she said.

The following reductions comprise the rest of the list:

Sheriff, $94,000

Elections bureau, $74,105

Miscellaneous expenses, $73,774

Property and revenue departments, $73,000

Information technology, $67,000

Car pool, which no longer has a director, $61,000

Planing, $40,000

Maintenance, $39,000

Government center utilities, $35,000

Controller, $34,000

Park and recreation, $18,000

Treasurer, $11,000

Human resources, $10,000

Clerk of courts, $4,000

District attorney, $3,000

County Controller Ben Holland said these cuts are better described as trimming the budget.

Holland said more significant shrinkage needs to occur.

According to Holland, the commissioners should have delayed borrowing money, which was authorized Wednesday, until more work was done to the budget.

“I’d like to see a balanced budget before moving forward with borrowing money,” he said.

Holland said any possible interest rate hike incurred by waiting wouldn’t make borrowing later cost-prohibitive.

Boozel disagreed.

“It is foolhardy, truly, to not take money now,” Boozel said. “We’re running into more and more problems.”

Among the projects the county plans to undertake in the next few years is replacing all the beige exterior panels on the government center and fixing water drainage issues in the courthouse.