(Hernando, MS) Desoto County employees have received a raise in four years.

In that time, the price of just about everything has gone up.

Now, some DeSoto County supervisors want to give employees a raise, but it could come with a cost.

The DeSoto County Board of Supervisors says it needs to make five percent cuts in funding across the board, because it’s spending two million dollars to build a new jail.

Part of those cuts are to help give county employees a 3% raise.

“We don’t want to raise taxes on anybody. And we’re trying to cut our budget by 5%,” said Supervisor Harvy Lee.

Lee expects making cuts at twelve agencies will save the county around half a million dollars.

“They understand the hard times. Some of them are a little upset and I can understand that,” said Lee.

Vicky Neyman runs DeSoto Arts Council and says it stands to lose about $20,000 a year from the county, “The 5% cut won’t kill us. We’ll just have to figure out other ways to find the funding or cut back on some things.”

Neyman said the cut in funds could impact people in DeSoto County more than they think, “An organization such as ourselves increases the livability of the county which enables it to draw more residents, to draw more corporate headquarters, to bring in different types of activities.”

Lee says that budget could be passed as soon as Tuesday.