The Douglas County Commission won’t finance school nurses in 2004, but commissioners said Monday they were willing to look at other methods of helping the Lawrence school district overcome its financial woes.

Commission Chairman Bob Johnson said during a budget session Monday he wasn’t ready to take on the $1 million cost of school nursing when the county faced its own financial obstacles.

“I don’t know that I’m opposed to doing that,” Johnson said of funding school nurses. “But I’m opposed to doing it in this budget cycle, without a public debate, without public input.”

Commissioner Charles Jones, the lone commission proponent of such funding, said he would give up his quest for now.

“I don’t think the votes are there to get the money,” he said.

He suggested, however, that commissioners could aid the school district by “not getting in the way” if school officials decide to seek an election for an education sales tax, similar to one approved this spring by Johnson County voters.

Discussion of the school nurses came on a day each of the three commissioners floated their ideas for cutting the proposed $44.6 million county budget for 2004.

Included on the chopping block: All or part of county funding for social programs such as Health Care Access, new deputies for the Douglas County Sheriff’s Department, cost-of-living wage increases for county employees and funding for the Douglas County Extension Service.

“We’re not making any friends,” Commissioner Jere McElhaney said. “We’ll have enemies for life.”

Annie Palmer files a patient's medical chart at Health Care Access, 1920 Moodie Road. The agency, which provides health care for the uninsured, may not receive the funding it needs from Douglas County to stay open this year. Palmer, a volunteer, worked on Monday at the clinic.

The proposed cuts ranged from Jones’ $192,973 to McElhaney’s $1.7 million. But even McElhaney’s proposal left a relatively small property tax increase in place — a little more than 0.6 mills, he said, about a $10 rise in taxes for the owner of a $150,000 home. That’s smaller than the proposed increase of 2.889 mills, nearly $50 in new taxes for the $150,000 homeowner.

“My goal was to get it to no increase,” McElhaney said. “I couldn’t quite do it.”

McElhaney proposed eliminating county support to six agencies: Shelter Inc., Douglas County Legal Aid, Emergency Services Council, CASA, Health Care Access and a small business development fund.

Nikki King, director of Health Care Access, said she requested an increase from $12,000 to $17,000 to offset declining state support and rising employee health insurance costs.

“While we’ve seen the cutbacks, the lines out our door are getting longer and longer,” she said. “Maybe our staff will become our own clients before long.”

McElhaney also suggested wholesale cuts to various county departments, saying the department heads could decide where the money came from.

“These are the numbers,” he said. “Just get to them.”

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Johnson and Jones both agreed to limit employee wage increases to 1.5 percent, and to give the sheriff two new deputies instead of the requested four. Those measures would save more than $140,000.

Commissioners said they would take a couple of days to digest each others’ proposals. They resume the budget discussion at 4 p.m. Wednesday in the Douglas County Courthouse, 11th and Massachusetts streets.