Prior to passing the 1995-96 budget last week, Miller made a suggestion that puts strings on county money to the department that the other commissioners agreed with.

The county currently contracts with the departments for the services they provide. The county pays the deparments for those contracted services with the fire district taxes that the county assesses, collects and then distributes to the departments. The departments also do their own fund raising, but those moneys are not part of the arrangement with the county.

Miller's suggestion will change those contracts by attaching the money the county provides to specific expenditures the departments identified in their budgets.

So if a new piece of equipment is purchased by the department that was not in the budget, no county funds can be used for it.

And if the county sees something in a budget it doesn't like, it can simply not allocate any funding for it in the contract.

The like other county departments, fire and rescue departments can come to the commisssioners during the year to make changes about what money goes where.

Miller said that those department chiefs who he spoke to about the changes were agreeable.

Fire district taxes will stay the same in the county for 1995-96 except in Fruitville Township, where the rate will go up from 7 cents for every $100 valuation, to 8 cents. Other districts - Moyock, 8.5 cents; Crawford, 8 cents; Poplar Branch, 6 cents.