The Craighead County Quorum Court has unveiled its proposed 2027 budget, highlighting a 1.4% overall increase, a 4% raise for county employees, and the addition of a public information officer position. The proposal was presented during Monday’s meeting at the courthouse annex in Jonesboro.
County Judge Marvin Day explained that the public information officer role would primarily focus on managing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests but also assist with press releases and social media. “We propose to the court that we add a public information officer who would predominantly take care of our FOIA requests, but also they’d help us with press releases and social media updates and that sort of thing,” Day stated during the meeting.
While the proposal has been outlined, it remains subject to amendments before the Quorum Court’s scheduled vote in December.
Additionally, Monday’s meeting included the introduction of newly elected justices of the peace, who met with some of their constituents. The justices, set to take office in January, also received briefings on local government operations.
“I had given them a copy of our current year budget, and then today they got a copy of the next year’s proposed budget,” Day noted. “And just trying to help educate them and hit the ground running so that we can hopefully put politics behind us and get back to just getting the county’s business done.”