By Ray King
A proposed 2026 budget of nearly $40 million was read for the first time during a meeting attended by just over half of the Jefferson County Quorum Court on Tuesday.
With County Judge Gerald Robinson and most of the justices who support him absent, Justice of the Peace Alfred Carroll presided over the meeting with fellow JP’s Reginald Adams, Melanie Dumas, Reginald Johnson, Rick Victorino, Brenda Bishop Gaddy and Margarete Williams in attendance.
Those seven voted to move the proposal forward for a second reading at a future meeting.
Also there was the senior member of the court, Justice Ted Harden, who said he was there only as an observer and did not participate in the voting.
After the meeting, Harden talked about that.
Not attending were Justices Roy Agee, Dr. Coley Byrd, Jimmy Fisher, Patricia Royal Johnson, all of whom support Robinson. Cedric Jackson was also absent.
The proposed 2026 budget calls for $12,915 million for the County General Fund and another $26,695 million for miscellaneous funds, bringing the grand total to $39,610,853.40.
Victorino said he had met with several of the elected officials and the budgets for their departments were in line with what they asked for and met state requirements.
A suggestion by Carroll to create a fund for the JP’s to use to support various programs in their districts, patterned after a similar program that members of the Pine Bluff City Council have was talked about, but several of the other JP’s said the idea was good, but it was too late to adopt anything for next year.
Carroll explained his idea to Deltaplex News.
Carroll said the county receives about $2.2 million from the casino and he suggested taking 10 percent of that, or about $250,000 to be divided between the 13 JP’s for their use. He cited the park which is replacing the former Babe Ruth Baseball field on Miramar Drive as an example, saying that a member of the City Council used money from her allocation from the city to get that project started.
