BENTONVILLE — While Benton County’s 2013 budget is essentially set, county officials still have some financial questions to answer.

Sarah Daniels, county comptroller, said the county’s 2013 budget was adopted with the acceptance by the justices of the peace that some requests will be reconsidered after the beginning of the year. The Budget Committee of the Benton County Quorum Court put aside consideration of some new vehicle purchases for the Sheriff’s Office and county jail until Sheriff-elect Kelley Cradduck takes office and can evaluate the operations of the Sheriff’s Office and jail.

“There were 10 patrol units, two CID units and a Dodge Ram in capital requests from the Sheriff’s Office and four Dodge Chargers for the jail,” Daniels said. “There was also a high-speed scanner for the Sheriff’s Office. From my conversations with the JPs, they want to see where our reserves are after the final turnback for 2012 is settled.”

The Budget Committee also postponed action on a proposal to fund the county’s five constables, who had presented a proposed budget of $4,500 each as part of the plan for the constables to work in conjunction with the Sheriff’s Office. County Attorney George Spence told the justices of the peace there are several legal questions that need to be settled before the county decides whether to budget that money.

The 2013 budget includes 2 percent raises for county employees and elected officials, Daniels said, but no increase in the reimbursement rate for justices of the peace. Justices of the peace are paid $350 monthly for Quorum Court and Committee of 13 meetings, regardless of the number of meetings, plus $100 for attending meetings of other committees they are members of. They also are reimbursed at a rate of 55.5 cents per miles for travel.

Daniels said the county will know what its “turnback” amount for 2012 will be sometime in the first quarter of 2013. She said the turnback is money that was appropriated in the 2012 budget year but not spent, plus revenue above the amount budgeted. Daniels has projected the county should receive around $1 million in turnback for 2012.

Daniels said the county’s reserve at the end of 2012 will be about $17 million. Of that, she said, state law requires the county to set aside 10 percent of the amount of its available money — before expenditures — which she has projected at $57 million for 2013. While state law sets the minimum amount of required reserve county government, Benton County’s justices of the peace, who set the budget, have adopted a policy of keeping a reserve of at least $10 million. With that, Daniels said, the county has $7 million in unallocated reserve.

County Judge Bob Clinard said he understands and supports the notion of keeping the county on a sound financial footing, but he questions the size of the county’s unallocated reserve.

“I don’t have any specific plans for it,” Clinard said. “The part that somewhat irritates me is the mindset that we can’t touch it. We’ve got the money. If we need something we ought to be able to spend some of our reserve. It’s all taxpayer money and they expect it to be put to some use. I’m not sure the taxpayers even know we’ve got that much money in reserve.”

Clinard said the reserve can and should be used for emergencies, but it should also be considered when the county has capital projects and long-term equipment purchases that are unmet.

“We took $600,000 out of the capital requests for the Road Department to balance this year’s operating budget,” Clinard said. “I think reserves could be and should be used for capital equipment, things that will last five years or 10 years. That kind of equipment, buildings, bridges, things that are going to last for multiple years should come from reserves. For us just to say we’re not going to consider it is, in my view, short-sighted.”

Clinard said he has one large building project in mind for the county, a courts facility that would house all of the county’s circuit judges and their staffs and support personnel, with the necessary courtrooms as well as the office space for the Prosecuting Attorney and Public Defender’s offices to operate as needed. With that, he said, he’s not looking to spend down the reserve, but he wants the Quorum Court to look at the courts facility, other buildings, and roads and bridges to see what work needs to be done and to consider putting some of the reserve fund to those uses.

“That’s why the county residents paid their taxes,” Clinard said. “To fix the county roads and to improve other services. We’ve got some bridges that need to be built. We need to consider doing more roads and buildings and bridges.”

Clinard said the county’s needs in an unforeseen emergency situation have to be considered, but should be based on a realistic appraisal of past occurrences.

“You can have the attitude that ‘The sky is falling!’ or you can say ‘This is reasonable.’” he said. “Again, you look at that Road Department equipment. They cut $600,000 from their request. That equipment could benefit the county. They had to cut back the amount of roads they’re paving from 60 to about 50. I expect the people on those 10 miles of road would like to see them done. Cutting money out of services when you’ve got it in reserve seems a little short-sighted to me.”

Justice of the Peace Tom Allen, chairman of the Finance Committee, which doubles as the Budget Committee, agreed the question of what to do with the county’s reserve money needs to be addressed.

“That question has been asked a lot over this past year,” Allen said. “We don’t need to be sitting on large amounts of money without a plan for what we’re going to do with it. I know the county judge has talked about a courts building. I haven’t seen any specific plans or anything, but just from general knowledge, that would cost a ton of money. You’re not talking about even a $10 million project, It would be significantly above that. I’m not in favor of raising taxes or of borrowing money so we need to come up with a plan for how we’re going to pay for it.”

Allen said he favors a continuation of past practice of splitting the reserve and placing some money each year and what is designated as a “capital projects reserve” account. The Quorum Court has had a goal of putting about $600,000 into that fund each year and using that for necessary capital projects while keeping the bulk of the reserve intact.

“If we get some significant turnback from 2012, we ought to put a similar amount into the capital reserve fund,” Allen said.