Crawford County JPs face higher mills, cuts

Court seeks to boost unexpected-cost funds

Monday, December 17, 2012

— The Crawford County Quorum Court is facing its own “fiscal cliff,” with its members deciding between imposing the first property-tax increase in 33 years or cutting services and possibly jobs, County Judge John Hall said Friday.

The Quorum Court meets tonight to consider approving the 2013 budget. Figures provided by the county clerk’s office show anticipated revenue for the county general fund, which pays for most of the county’s wages and operations, to be $8.6 million next year, compared with expenditure requests totaling nearly $8.56 million.

If passed in that form, the budget would leave the county general fund with just more than $35,000 for unexpected expenses next year.

The Quorum Court had already ordered its departments to cut 10 percent from their budgets to arrive at the $8.56 million figure, County Clerk Teresa Armer said. Armer said she has had no increase in spending in her office’s budget since she took office in 2009.

Departments that generate their own money through fees and service charges, such as the county clerk and circuitclerk, have been using that money to supplement their budgets, Hall said. Those funds - called automation funds - which accumulate money for the replacement of office equipment, are becoming depleted and won’t be able to buoy those departmental budgets any longer, Hall said.

Some departments also are using their automation funds to make up for the 10 percent cuts, he said.

Circuit Clerk Sharon Blount, for example, said her office generates about $400,000 a year for the automation fund, part of which shehas been using to pay seven of her 11 deputy clerks. Her office gets more than $200,000 from the county general fund that she said pays the other four deputies and the office expenses.

Without the 10 percent cuts from the departments, the general fund budget would have been $800,000 short of meeting expenses, Armer said.

Hall said that could have meant the county had to lose more than 20 jobs to balance the budget. He said 75 percent of the general fund budget goes to salaries and wages, and the other 25 percent is used for supplies and operations.

If the county does have to cut jobs, the cuts probably would be spread throughout the departments that arefunded by the general fund, Hall said. Those departments include the sheriff ’s office but exclude the Road Department, which is funded from other sources, mostly from the gas-tax turnback.

An alternative would be to cut services, such as rural fire departments, the county fair, senior-citizen services and the county extension service, Hall said.

An ordinance proposing a property-tax increase also is on tonight’s meeting agenda. It proposes to raise the county’s tax rate for real and personal property by 2 mills, from the current levy of 1.9 mills to 3.9 mills. State law allows quorum courts to levy up to 5 mills without a vote of the people, according to information released by the county.

County figures showed that the 1.9 mills generate about $1.3 million a year. One mill would generate nearly$687,000 a year, with 2 mills raising $1.37 million.

A 2-mill tax increase would add $30 to a tax bill of a person owning a home valued at $75,000. A person with personal property assessed at $5,000 would pay an extra $5 for a 2-mill tax increase.

Hall said no one wants to see taxes go up. He said he’s gotten comments from people angry that the Quorum Court is considering raising the tax and from others angry that the Quorum Court has not considered raising the tax sooner.

Armer said people have told her that they would prefer to see an increase in the tax rather than a cut in rural fire departments. Such cuts could result in a rise in the county’s Insurance Services Office rating, which could cause an increase in home-insurance premiums, she said.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 12/17/2012