Clark County will only have to shell out about $123,000 this year in additional retirement contributions instead of the anticipated $600,000.

The reduction was welcome news to Clark County Judge-Executive Henry Branham, as it added $471,812 to the budget for fiscal year 2019.

The change came after the Kentucky General Assembly overrode Gov. Matt Bevin’s veto of a bill to allow governments to phase in the increased retirement payments. Instead of paying 28.05 percent of salaries for non-hazardous duty retirement and 47.86 percent for hazardous duty, the county has to pay 21.48 percent for non-hazardous and 35.34 percent for hazardous in fiscal year 2019, Branham said.

The fiscal court was scheduled to vote on the first reading of the nearly $16 million budget Wednesday, but decided unanimously to postpone the vote until the May 23 meeting.

Branham said there would still be time for the state Department of Local Government to review the budget and a second reading before the end of the fiscal year on June 30.

State law requires all county budgets to be reviewed by DLG officials. Any changes made by DLG must remain in the budget, but county officials are free to alter other areas before the second reading.

Branham said the bulk of the savings would go to the county’s capital outlay and rainy day funds, both of which would have been used to cover the increased retirement payment this year.

A number of other reductions were made throughout the budget including transfers to the county jail and carryover funds in the county road department.

Branham said Clark County Jailer Frank Doyle approved the changes to the jail’s budget as well.