AMHERST â Amherst Countyâs budget plan for fiscal year 2022 currently is projected at $45.7 million and includes a 1.5% cost-of-living pay raise for county employees, based on figures recently presented to the countyâs board of supervisors. The budget plan, which County Administrator Dean Rodgers will formally propose in coming weeks, reinstates $700,000 in cuts made last year in part to offset the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and make way for a staff salary adjustment. Rodgers said the budget that takes effect July 1 is balanced but after that point the countyâs expenses will begin to outpace revenues. âWe can do it for one more year and the proposed budget does that,â Rodgers said of balancing the figures. âBeyond that, we need either significantly reduced expenditures or increased revenues.â