The Carroll County Quorum Court approved the first reading of a proposed 2026 budget at its regular monthly meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 18.

The proposed budget includes 4 percent raises for all county employees with the exception of deputy sheriffs and detention officers, who would receive raises of $1.25 per hour.

“Our budget committee worked really hard on the budget this year,” said District 6 Justice of the Peace Craig Hicks, who chairs the committee. “Financially, we’re in good shape.”

Hicks said this will be the second consecutive year that county employees have received a 4 percent raise.

“I believe 8 percent over two years is probably more than anybody around has gotten,” he said.

The raises for deputies and detention officers will bring them more in line with other law enforcement agencies, Hicks said.

Hicks praised the county’s elected officials with operating within their budgets in 2025.

“I can probably count on one hand how many times they’ve come to us to add money for something,” Hicks said. “And that was one of our goals this year is to see if they could operate within their budget. In years past, there have been several times, it seemed like all the time somebody was coming with something that wasn’t budgeted. But like I said, we can count on one hand how many times we had somebody ask us for something extra that wasn’t in the budget. … I realize this is just the first reading, but I’m very excited about the raises that we’re able to propose.”

The quorum court likely will vote on second and third readings of the proposed budget at its next regular meeting, scheduled for 5 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 16, in the courtroom of the Eastern District Courthouse in Berryville.