Moriarty, which has been hit hard by the recession, is coming out with a balanced interim budget, approved Tuesday night by the City Council. The city is facing an 8 percent gross receipts tax downturn since last year, according to Clerk-Treasurer Linda Fischer. In order to balance the budget, Fischer figured in various funding transfers and a six-month pay freeze. City staff will get a 2 1/2 percent raise in January if everything goes well, Fischer said. Overtime for the police department and the salary for the school resource officer were also figured in with the help of $62,000 from forfeitures. Fischer added $15,800 in staffing expenses for the DWI Memorial of Perpetual Tears due to some city staff voluntarily dropping hours.

"We squeezed everywhere, we cut some operating expenses, but the good news is no layoffs," Fischer said.

Torrance County voted to adopt their interim budget Wednesday morning. Department heads were asked to keep staffing and benefits the same, with a five percent operating budget increase, according to County Comptroller Tracy Sedillo. Funding increases were also given to the Estancia Valley Economic Development Association, the county fair, and the county extension office.

The county was able to offset some of the increases with help from $132,000 in additional Payments in Lieu of Taxes program funding, Sedillo said.

The planning session was difficult, Sedillo said, due to issues with new software, and the treasurer's office still doesn't know exactly how much money the county has to work with.

"This is the best we can put forth at this time with all the issues we've been having," Sedillo said.

Janice Barela, deputy treasurer, said progress is being made in the treasurer's office, and is hoping to have accurate numbers by final operating budget time.

Estancia had a special budget workshop last Wednesday night, where its interim budget was adopted.

Town Clerk Tammy Meyer said the budget is stable, with no major cuts.

Mountainair will vote on its interim budget at Tuesday night's council meeting. Not many changes were made from last year's budget, Clerk Susan Brazil said. No additional funding is coming in from the state, Brazil said, but no layoffs or drastic cuts were made.

The village of Tijeras is working on a $7,453,000 interim budget.

The major expense from that budget is a $4,264,000 water system. Only $744,000 of that is budgeted as an expense from the village coffers and the rest will come from state and federal grant money, according to village finance officer Kathy Solomon.

Tijeras is estimating $615,000 in gross receipts tax income.

The town of Edgewood is expecting $3,266,531 in revenue, with about $2 million coming in from gross receipts taxes.

The town is anticipating $3,131,241 in expenses.

The county and municipalities will operate on their interim budgets, which must be approved by the state Department of Finance and Administration.

Telegraph reporter Lee Ross contributed to this story.