St. Joseph County residents may be seeing an increase in county income taxes and a decrease in county services.

The county’s budget for 2008 is about $66 million. But next year, lawmakers are working to balance a budget about 12 percent lighter, about $58 million.

The difference is partially because of the state’s cap on property taxes. That’s bringing in less revenue for the counties in Indiana.

And that has implications.

"I believe there's going to be significant departmental cuts, such so that it will affect services," County Commissioner Mark Dobson explains. "There are some operations that we have supported using grant funds or federal monies, or something else that we've been required to match. And perhaps that program has to go away…We thought it was a benefit to the community, but it's time for us to shed ourselves of that."

County lawmakers met Thursday to strategize how to approach next year’s budget, which is expected by August 12th.

"It's going to take a lot of working together with both Mishawaka and the city of South Bend to determine exactly what direction we must go in to resolve this," County Auditor Peter Mullen says. Most lawmakers agree.

Mullen says the past few years, the “fat” on the budget was cut. That means next year’s cuts won’t be “the extras.”

"Now we're into the meat. Now we're into the very, very difficult stuff," Mullen says.

Another option on the table is increasing county income taxes. St. Joseph County resident pay some of the lowest in the state, .8 percent.