 Appalachian Wireless proudly brings you unlimited data. Unlimited data is only $80 a month for a single line. Four lines as low as $200. Better service? Bigger savings? That's today's Appalachian Wireless. An East Kentucky network company. Fiat of Speed slow to 25 gigabytes per line to 512 kilobits for phones and tablets. And 15 gigabytes for motors. See store for more details. The Pike County Fiscal Court has set to begin budget discussions for the 2018-2019 budget cycle here in just a couple of weeks. And one of the items that could be up for discussion is possibly repealing the county's occupational tax. And the discussion at some point will turn to, can the county afford it? During Tuesday's Pike Fiscal Court meeting, county officials scheduled budget discussions for the upcoming fiscal year to begin at the court's next meeting, February 20th. District 5 magistrate Hillman-Dotzen said he hopes to discuss possibly repealing Pike County's not yet two-year-old 1% occupational tax. We were going to look at the percent of the occupational tax, so we'll have to know what money we had in our budget to allow us to do that. After the meeting, Dotson said he hopes the county can afford to repeal the tax. We put it on there when it was necessary at the time. We didn't have any way of running the county, so it was a must that we'd done it. We always figured that we could undo what we'd done, and I think the plan of the court is to see if we can do it. County Treasurer John DeBillider, however, said the county likely cannot afford to do away with the occupational tax. I do not see how we can. There would have to be a lot more cuts to come. DeBillider said the tax needed more than $3 million in revenue in its first full year, and with the county facing an already-type budget and the prospect of possibly having to contribute an additional $600,000 to employee retirement, the loss of the tax revenue would be devastating to the county. We've already been told by retirement system that the county's match is going to 28 or 29% from 19, which is another $600,000 based on a $7 million payroll budget. So I don't see how with the costs that are being passed on to the counties that we can afford to repeal the occupational tax. Still, Dotson wants to explore repealing the tax. We'll be able to tell you more about it in our next court meeting. What we're going to be able to do, it might be that we're not able to do it, but we're hoping we can. I will present them with numbers that I don't see how they can afford to do it based on everything else that's going down. That's the only saving device we have at this point. The February 20th Pike Fiscal Court meeting when the budget discussions are planned to begin will be held at 5.30pm at the Pike County Courthouse, Chris Anderson, EKB News.