New Hanover County budget released

New Hanover County‘s budget for 08-09 is nearly one million dollars less than last fiscal year.

That means county commissioners had to cut back.

Perhaps the largest cuts will be to Airlie Gardens and the Library.

Directors of both said they got what they were expecting and that the cuts probably won’t hurt their organizations.

The county also increased budgets for the Sheriff’s office and the schools even though schools didn’t quite get what they requested.

County budget manager Cam Griffin said tough economic times are taking their toll on local government.

“That’s what’s impacted our sales tax, obviously the cost of fuel has impacted us also and the cost of fuel has impacted us, so, we’re going to have to monitor everything carefully as we go through the next year,” said Griffin.

Another significant budget cut was the Cape Fear Museum. It lost more than $40,000 in county funding.