In a brief meeting Monday evening, the Madisonville Mayor and Aldermen made the town's 2009-10 budget official.

Alderman and Finance Officer Glenn Moser said the town's budget for the upcoming fiscal year would be $2,932,618, basically the same budget as the previous year, leaving the town's property tax rate at 52 cents.

"And the good news, is that unless some big bill comes due in July, we should close out the 2008-09 budget $100,000 in the black," Moser said. "That's nothing to sneeze at in today's economy.
"I'd really like to commend everybody in the city for helping us be in the black as the fiscal year ended," Moser added. "From the aldermen to the department heads to the city employees, everybody was on the same page, trying to go in the same direction."

Despite the good news about the soon to end budget, Alderwoman Linda Hensley pointed out a lot of bills from the town's water, sewer and gas departments are starting to become overdue.
"You get a lot of that in this kind of economy," City Recorder Ted Cagle said. "You have elderly people running out of money and people out of work. Monroe County has an unemployment rate of 18 percent. That's one out of five. And you have people moving into an apartment or renting a house, getting the service and then moving before they pay the bill. But each case involves an individual person."

Cagle said he would look at the overdue bills and see what could be done about them.

michael.thomason@advocateanddemocrat.com | 442-4575