County Commissioners will finish their budget by month’s end but say they’ll face some tough decisions before they’re done.

“We have been hit so hard, especially lately, with the community college, schools, everybody saying, ‘Well, we’re going to need more [because] the state’s not giving us enough,’” Chairman Wade Stewart said at a meeting last week.

One of the biggest challenges is compensating for shifting budget numbers out of Raleigh, commissioners and staff said, “These numbers, as we’re seeing them, it’s like quicksand,” said Rick Hester, county manager. “They keep changing.”

In some cases, the state is withholding money from counties to manage its cash flow, Hester said. For example, the state will withhold some June sales-tax distribution, and it is keeping about $850,000 in lottery funds that were supposed to come to Johnston County, Hester said.

“I dread to see it,” he said, referring to the sales-tax distribution.

Meanwhile, some bills circulating in Raleigh could affect the county’s budget even more.

One bill would require community colleges to charge emergency workers for continuing education and training courses.

Normally, the courses are free. Hester estimated the change could cost the county $300,000 to $400,000.

“It’s going to be a dramatic hit if the state no longer funds continuing education,” Stewart said.

Sheriff Steve Bizzell said he was following bills that could keep inmates in jail for longer stays and take away some state money used to house prisoners.

“It ain’t looking good,” he said. “The money keeps getting less, but the bills are getting more.”

Other revenue sources are down too, commissioners heard at their meeting last week. Fees for new-housing permits are a third of what they might have been in years past, said Dean Barbour, head of Johnston County Building Inspections. Many people are remodeling instead, he said.

“People are holding on to what they’ve got,” Barbour said.

Commissioners said tightening cash flow and lower revenue projections would ensure hours of budget debate in the coming weeks.

“There’s gonna be a lot of cutting,” Stewart said. “I don’t know what any or all of us are going to do. We don’t know where all of this is going.”

The commissioners must approve their budget by July. Hester’s proposed budget totals $168.8 million, 6.4 percent less than this year’s $180 million operating budget.