Madison County will continue to focus on road construction and improvements during 2022 as shown through its newly adopted fiscal year budget.
Shelton Vance, the Madison County Administrator, said the largest components of the 2022 fiscal year budget is providing public safety and construction of infrastructure, which requires a focus on the roads.
“There are large road projects that have been in progress for several years that the Board has committed resources to – Bozeman Road, Reunion Crossing Parkway, and Reunion III,” Vance said.
District 2 Supervisor Trey Baxter said his goals during his term have always been to focus on three things: economic development, public safety and road improvements. He said his biggest concern as the county grows is road capacity, and he will continue to focus on it this upcoming year. Construction will begin in the spring on Bozeman Road to put four lanes on either side of the median from Reunion Parkway and MS463.
“Bozeman Road is over 100 percent capacity,” Baxter said. “It has over 20,000 cars a day on it.”
Additionally, Baxter said construction will begin soon on Reunion Bridge that runs over I-55. While taxes didn’t increase this year for residents, road improvements projects are costly affairs and Baxter said they have asked the state for funding towards the projects. The state gave the county $17 million for the Bozeman Road and Reunion Bridge projects.
As far as taxes, Baxter said there is no need to raise resident’s taxes due to the amount of money the county already has coming in.
“Madison County has so much growth that we don’t have to raise taxes,” Baxter said.
The board has maintained the current overall tax rate for 10 fiscal years. Vance said this is due to the board’s attention to the budget and spending.
An additional step beyond road expansion to ensure public safety was increasing the sheriff department’s budgeted amount. Baxter said this was to allow the department to hire more deputies.
“We gave the sheriff’s department a considerable amount of money,” Baxter said. “That was one of my goals with public safety.”
County workers whose salaries are determined by the Board of Supervisors will be seeing a higher paycheck as a result of the adopted budget. Those employees making $35,000 or less will receive a four percent increase. All others will receive a three percent salary increase.
“Periodically, the Board reviews payroll to look for necessary adjustments,” Vance said.
