Madison County in financial hole
By: Chris Wilson   NewsLinkIndiana
04/12/2005

 ANDERSON, Ind. (NLI) - Madison County leaders are looking for financial help with the increasing cost of business and the declining income due to unpaid taxes.

One of those costs is the thousands of costs the county will pay for new voting systems each county is required to have by the next election.

County commissioners are looking at two different election software companies both with touch screen machines and one with an optical scan.

Each touch screen console ranges from $2,500 to $2,800 and the federal government will only give the county $8,000 dollars for each precinct.

The optical scan system however is $5,200 with only one required for each precinct. But according to Madison County Election Director Mary Retherford, the system would require a lot more paper than the punch cards which the county now uses.

County auditor Kathy Stoops-Wright said there is no money set aside for the new voting systems and said the county has is in a financial hole.

"We're going to have to cut back just to make our payroll and claims. We have to dig out of this hole someway and it won't be overnight. It'll be a period of three or four years of cuts and streamlining a little bit," Stoops-Wright said.

The Madison County council will meet Tuesday at 4 p.m. to look at their options in saving the county's budget of one which, Stoops-Wright said, is changing the benefit plans of county employees and not replacing workers.