Hardin County Fiscal Court approves 2026-2027 budget

The Hardin County Fiscal Court met for their first meeting of the month Tuesday.

The court approved the adoption of the fiscal year 2026-2027 budget on its second reading. The budget ordinance was approved on a 7 to 1 vote, with Hardin County Judge/Executive Keith Taul voting no as he said he was still not happy with changes made to his proposed budget.

“I believe that these cuts will reduce the quality of our services,” Taul said. “We’ll have higher turnover and continuous training of new employees, and then we also have this lack of support for fire services improvement for some future objectives here.”

Fifth District Magistrate Aaron Pennington said he thinks the idea that the magistrates do not care about fire services is “extremely inaccurate.”

“I think we believe in common sense, and I think we believe in coming up with a proper plan for how we’re going to take care of things, and blindly just throwing money left and right hoping you’ll fix something is not the proper way to do it,” Pennington said. “It’s not the way to do government. It’s not the way to spend your money personally or professionally.”

In other meeting news, Hardin County Animal Care and Control Director Mike McNutt said 44 dogs were adopted out in May, bringing the year to date total to 546. McNutt said the shelter is hovering just above a 90 percent live release rate, which would qualify the shelter for no-kill status, which he said is an important goal for the staff at the shelter.

Taul recognized three Hardin County EMS technicians and paramedics for their quick work in helping to deliver a baby during an ambulance run, joining what is known as the “Stork Club”.

“On May 24, EMT Rea Daugherty, Paramedic Kimberly Holcomb, and Paramedic Logan Savage successfully delivered a baby while on call for service, and it was discovered that while they were doing this that the umbilical cord was wrapped around the child’s neck, and the crew quickly addressed this and delivered the child without any further complications,” Taul said.

The Hardin County Fiscal Court will next meet June 23.