Oct. 1 begins a new fiscal year for El Paso County. In Monday's meeting, county commissioners approved a new budget. 

But not all the commissioners agreed on the way the county's finances were budgeted. 

Judge Veronica Escobar said the process the county went through to arrive at this year's budget was the best she's seen since joining the court in 2007. 

But Commissioner Sergio Lewis said he disagreed with the way the county arrived at a balanced budget, because he voted against the 5-cent tax increase. Instead, he favored a 3-cent tax increase. 

"I supported a 3-cent hike, but I was never in favor of a 5-cent hike. I felt raising it all the way up to the rollback rate was just a little too high considering the times we are living in," said Lewis. 

Commissioner Dan Haggerty was unable to attend last week's session when, the court votedon the tax increase, because of surgery, but he said he was also against the 5-cent increase used to balance this year's budget. 

"We need some sort of increase; I just felt 5 cents was too much," said Haggerty. 

While Haggerty disagreed with the tax increase, he did vote to approve the budget. 

"The budget is a good budget," he said. 

Escobar took time during Monday's session to thank the commissioners and county employees for the work they did to help address staffing requests and restructure the budget after years of salary freezes and reductions. 

She said this year's budget will help to reduce the county's dependence on debt. 

Lewis was unable to be in Monday's session or vote on the budget because he had to leave early to attend state-mandated certification. But he expressed frustration that the budget item was not discussed first. 

"My vote would have been a more conservative vote anyways. So not being here for the budget, either way you look at it, I never really supported the tax hike. I was just a little disappointed, quite frankly," said Lewis. 

Agenda Item 43 was moved ahead of the budget issues, Item 31. That issue, addressing reserve deputy constables, took almost an hour and a half and included an executive session. 

Lewis said he was not satisfied with the court's reasoning for hearing the item earlier. Escobar cited the fact that a number of elected of officials were there, and therefore, she wanted to get them out earlier.