Douglas County government’s $47.5 million operating budget for next year is taking shape, but elected officials want to wait until next week before deciding exactly which positions, projects and programs make the cut.

Douglas County commissioners reached a handful of tentative budget decisions Wednesday, closing out three days of hearings that drew requests from dozens of county departments, social service agencies and others.

One unanimous conclusion: Commissioners will not approve a budget that calls for an increase in the county’s property-tax rate.

Among the winners Wednesday:

• Watkins Community Museum of History. Commissioners generally decided the county should spend $25,000 to overhaul public restrooms at the museum, 1047 Mass., work that could begin by the end of this year. Commissioners also indicated a willingness to pay a consultant $12,500 to continue fund-raising efforts through May.
• Emergency Communications Center. All three commissioners said they were ready to spend a total of $6,000 next year to boost salaries for emergency dispatchers who receive special training designed to provide limited medical advice to people calling 911 for assistance. The money would go along with $12,000 from the city of Lawrence to bump up salaries for qualifying dispatchers.
• Lawrence Chamber of Commerce. Commissioners generally support the agency’s request for $5,000 to boost services at the Small Business Development Center.
• Public works. Commissioners support hiring two employees — total cost: $67,500 — whose primary responsibilities would be clearing and maintaining culverts in rural areas. Another $80,000 would be added to the county’s $160,000 budget for hiring road-repaving crews, provided the county received enough state revenue to cover the cost.

Other requests were not received as warmly.

A recommendation to boost hourly pay for public-appointed defense attorneys from $50 to $65 lost momentum Wednesday. Commissioners Charles Jones and Bob Johnson said they might be willing to bump the rate to $55, but even that raise — total cost to the county: $15,500 — would have to wait until other needs were weighed next week.

The state of Kansas pays $50 an hour for attorneys who are appointed to defend people accused of felonies, a compensation level that led commissioners to wonder why attorneys working misdemeanor cases should get more.

“It’s either $5 (more) or nothing,” Jones said.

Douglas County Visiting Nurses Assn. won’t be getting the extra $80,000 it requested to help offset an anticipated $240,000 shortfall brought on by dwindling Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements and rising demands on a county-financed assistance program.

Commissioners aren’t convinced that the organization’s managers have a solid plan to dig the agency out of debt.

“I just can’t justify it based upon the information we’ve been given,” Johnson said.

Commissioners agreed to keep $20,000 in the budget, money likely to be used to hire a consultant to help navigate a possible purchase of the former Farmland Industries fertilizer plant at the southeastern edge of Lawrence. Commissioners foresee preserving some of the site as open space and the rest as a business park.

Commissioners agreed to meet Tuesday to hammer out their final budget decisions Tuesday, in time to be compiled into a proposed budget that would be set for a public hearing — largely a formality — Aug. 11.

— Staff writer Mark Fagan can be reached at 832-7188.