He mentioned that he is trying to limit his employees to 16-20 gallons per week to try to meet budget requirements. He also questioned an increment to the probation department and was informed by the auditor's staff that he indeed did get the funds for three employees to work at Maverick County lake which was another of his concerns. Commissioner of Precinct 2, Rudy Heredia stated, "Personally I think we all have to sacrifice to pay debts and be responsible," he also referred to past issues, "We went through a lot of problems, I see a lot of progress and we're trying to get refinanced. We've been without an auditor for a long while." Commissioner of Precinct 3 had a question about the appraisal district and wanted to be sure he kept his seven employees at $9.00 an hour. Commissioner of Precinct 4, Cesar Flores, mentioned that he managed to keep a summer program going with the minimal amount of funds allocated to his precinct and was concerned about distributing funds across the precincts evenly. He also advocated for his employees who work at a rate of $14.00 an hour as opposed to supervisors at the Road & Bridge Department who earn $18.00 an hour and who he feels deserve the same as some of his workers wear multiple hats in terms of responsibilities. When all was said and done, the budget was approved by a unanimous vote. When the next issue came up, that of the proposed tax increase, County Judge David Saucedo asked for the exact amount of the rollback which was not on hand. Karla Mazuka was asked to go back to their office to retrieve a document showing the exact amount due to the fact that the designated person was not present at the meeting. New auditor, Fidencio Ortiz was asked to assist in the matter yet was unable to give the exact amount as he was only approved as of Monday and only had three days to look over the final budget and he had not looked into the tax increase over the past two days. When the official amount of 0.5810 was provided, a vote was taken and when discussion on the increase was allowed, Judge Saucedo stated that if they did not approve this rate hike, they would need to cut $1.9 million of the newly approved budget, plus the County would lose a $3.8 million dollar grant for a future project, a $500,000.00 grant for Precinct 3, $1.3 million dollars for a colonia construction project among other things such as a reimbursement from USDA. "It's unfortunate that we're in this situation," he stated, "But we're trying to avoid bankruptcy. I applaud all of our commissioners who have had to make some difficult decisions in order to improve the County's standing and we will work on a new contract with GEO on the amount we receive for each inmate among other things." When the votes were cast, the tax increase was approved by a vote of 4-1 with Commissioner Rosales casting the only dissenting vote.