Fayette County Commissioner Peter Pfeifer let it be known Thursday night that he could not support the county’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year.

“This is a budget designed for the current employees. It’s not designed for the employers – the taxpayer. It’s not about service for the people who pay.

“It looks like to me that departments were told to cut spending across the board in order to protect the massive pay raises that were voted in by this board in February,” Pfeifer said.

By his calculations, the average increase in pay per county employee was 9.5 percent.

“How many of Fayette County’s employers, the taxpayers, received an increase in their paycheck that matched 7.5 percent, 8.3 percent, 9.1 percent or 17.4 percent. Not many,” he said.

Pfeifer added that the motivations were clear in preparing the budget.

“It looks like to me that departments were told to cut spending across the board in order to protect the massive pay raises that were voted in by this board in February.

“Remove or reduce these raises and there would be room to cut this budget and reduce the millage rate and taxes,” Pfeifer said.

“I intend to vote against this budget,” he said.

But Commissioner Eric Maxwell said it was a little late for Pfeifer to be bringing up these points.

“This is grandstanding. Why didn’t you bring this up when we discussed the budget during an all-day session,” he said.

Nobody spoke during the public hearing on the budget and approval of the $79 million total budget is set for June 26.