Committee Endorses County Raises

Friday, November 16, 2012

— Benton County officials voted Thursday to move forward with a 2 percent raise for employees and elected officials in the 2013 budget.

The Finance Committee, meeting as the Budget Committee, unanimously endorsed the raises Thursday. Approval of the budget will come at a later meeting before the Quorum Court considers the recommended budget.

At A Glance

County Budget

Benton County officials are working on the county’s 2013 budget. Initial projection shows the county receiving about $40,541,935 in revenue for 2013. The initial budget requests totaled $42,189,365, including about $1.6 million in capital equipment requests.

Source: Staff Report

The committee spent about three hours Thursday reviewing personnel requests before moving into capital equipment requests.

Sarah Daniels, county comptroller, told the panel she developed a proposal taking estimated revenue of $40,841,935 and matching it against requested operating expenditures of $40,180,051.

“That leaves a net operating income of $661,884,” Daniels told the committee. By shifting some jobs in the Benton County Sheriff’s Office from general fund to accounts within the Sheriff’s Office, Daniels said, the county would have about $1,246,000 available for cost-of-living increases and capital equipment requests.

Justice of the Peace Tom Allen, committee chairman, said raises should be considered first.

“I think that’s encouraging,” Allen said of Daniels’ proposal. “My take on that is we have something to work with. In my opinion, and I’m just one JP, we need to put a priority on what some people are calling a COLA. I just call it a raise. I figure this is a good starting point. If anything is left over after the raise then we can consider capital requests.”

Daniels reminded the justices of the peace the county expects to have a fund balance of $15.5 million at the end of 2012 and has a projected ending balance of $17 million at the end of 2013.

“There is the possibility of taking some capital requests out of reserves,” she said.

Justice of the Peace Joel Jones said he was reluctant to take money from reserve to pay for capital requests.

“There’s a difference between ‘building’ capital requests and a revolving, year-after-year expense,” Jones said. “If we don’t include some of these in operating, at some point we’re just shooting ourselves in the foot.”

Justice of the Peace Frank Winscott said he’s concerned the county’s sales tax revenue might not meet projection if the national economy falters. Daniels said the county expects $6.3 million in sales tax revenue in 2012 and is on track to meet that number. For 2013, Daniels said, the county is estimating sales tax revenue of $6.6 million.

Allen said the local economy is still growing, with businesses opening that are attracting business from beyond Benton County.

“$6.6 million is pretty much flat,” Allen said. “To my knowledge, we’ve never done a flat sales tax projection.”

The justices of the peace considered a number of smaller personnel requests, which carried a cost of about $200,000. Some were moved on for inclusion in the budget while others were put on hold for more discussion. After dealing with those items, the committee took up the question of raises. Barb Ludwig, human resources manager, told the justices of the peace an increase in federal withholding for Social Security is expected which would take 2 percent of each employees current pay.

“How many of you in this room are getting 2 percent raises to make up for this?” asked Justice of the Peace Kurt Moore.

“That makes my point,” Moore said when no one responded to his query.

Jones said he wanted the county to at least try to keep employees “level” by offsetting the expected increase in withholding.

“A 2 percent increase is $600,000,” Jones said. “Then we’d still have $646,000 to work with on capital requests.”

Daniels said the county would spend $600,000 on a 2 percent raise for all employees and elected officials.

Winscott, saying the employees were the county’s most valuable resource, also endorsed the recommended raises. When the motion was put to a vote, the justices of the peace voted unanimously to include the raises in the budget.