Somerset County will today discuss its FY 2013 budget, with an array of difficult decisions comparable to those facing counties across the state. The county is absorbing nearly $500,000 in new costs of teacher retirement, but in this year’s budget is receiving some “offset” assistance through the state’s disparity grant. Among other issues reported by Delmarvanow.com include the continuing differential between education funding and the remainder of the county budget priorities:

The budget includes an $8.6 million appropriation to the school system, which is the same amount as in this year’s budget.

For the third year, county department heads were asked to trim expenses by 7 percent and employees will not see salary increases.

The county also had to use $3.1 million out of the fund balance in order to cover expenses in the new budget.