White County Sheriff Oddie Shoupe has announced he’s suing the county over a lack of funding.

The announcement came during Thursday night’s budget committee meeting after the committee failed to approve a requested 10 cent property tax increase to allow for a 3% raise for Shoupe’s employees.

It came as no shock to many inside the courtroom Thursday, as two days before Shoupe spent over an hour pleading his case for additional funding and expressing his concern over a lack of leadership in the county.

The biggest issue for Shoupe centered around a lack of funding as a whole as he told committee members that the Justice Center was falling apart.

He also fumed about his employees not receiving higher wages, in fact his employees are the lowest paid in the six surrounding counties.

The budget committee approved last night’s budget which includes a $95,000 deficit and an $85,000 cut in funding to the E-911 Service.

If the County Commission approves the budget then Shoupe has 30 days after that time to file the lawsuit.