Gregg County Judge Bill Stoudt speaks during a news conference Tuesday March 24, 2020, at the Gregg County Courthouse. (Michael Cavazos/ News-Journal Photo)

Gregg County Judge Bill Stoudt has tasked each of his department heads to find 15% in cuts to their budgets amid revenue declines stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Some departments will not meet that, and some will exceed that,” he said. “And my hope is we cut a substantial amount from our budget.”

Stoudt said he made the decision to make cuts because “it’s just good business.” The 2020-21 budget will be smaller than a year ago because how business works is changing during the pandemic.

He said no furloughs or layoffs are planned, “but we are looking at open positions and whether to fill them or not.”

Stoudt said there is not an official hiring freeze, but he is going over all open positions with staff members to determine if they are critical to be filled. About 15 to 20 county positions are open, he said.

The county starting talking about budget cuts early in the spring when COVID-19 starting spreading, Stoudt said. The county even made changes to its insurance program to save money.

Departments should be finished sending budget requests to Stoudt by June 1, he said. Once he receives budgets from departments, he said he will put together a full spending plan for commissioners to vote on. The new budget will go into effect Oct. 1.

Stoudt said while there are no plans to cut employees or services, no employee raises are on the horizon.

Without cutting employees or services, Stoudt said there still are areas where the county can find savings.

“You have a lot of conferences staff go to during the year. Some are not required, so we will probably look at these and see which non-mandatory ones we can pass up this year,” he said. “Some of the computer needs, some departments might request new computers, but if they’re still working, we might not replace them. It’s things like that.”

Stoudt said there are plenty of areas the county can look at to make cuts and still be effective.

“The future of the effects of COVID are still not here,” he said. “We still have capital projects we’ll be doing. We will move the county forward. I just want to be vigilant on the financial side of business.”