It took less than 10 minutes for the Mathews County Board of Supervisors to hold its public hearing on the 2015-2016 fiscal year budget last Thursday. A meeting to adopt the budget is scheduled for 6:30 tonight in the historic courthouse on Court Street.

With about a half dozen people present, only two residents addressed the board with concerns about the $23.75 million budget, which doesn’t require a tax increase and which reflects a $65,000 decrease in expenditures from last year; provides county and school employees with a 1.5 percent raise; and includes a 2 percent raise for employees in Social Services and for the state-paid portion of the salaries of employees in the constitutional offices.

Mathews Education Association representative Amy Bohannon-Stewart said in a brief statement that she was disappointed that the supervisors “didn’t allow the school board to keep the amount of debt service they originally asked for.”

Debt service payments will decreas...