BENTONVILLE — Benton County’s justices of the peace agreed Tuesday they had too many questions about the Planning Department’s budget and will ask the department head and supervisor to attend their next meeting for a line-by-line review.
Justice of the Peace Dan Douglas noted the department has had nearly a 50 percent increase in its budget over the past two years. Other justices of the peace questioned increases in specific line items, including professional services, small equipment and others.
“Let’s just ask someone to attend the next meeting,” Justice of the Peace Tom Allen said.
Allen suggested department head Chris Ryan or Elizabeth Bowen, the general services administrator who oversees the department, be asked to attend the next meeting for a detailed review of the budget.
At A Glance
County Budget
According to Sarah Daniels, comptroller, Benton County’s initial budget projection shows revenue at $40,541,935 in 2013, down from $41,234,853 expected in 2012. Initial budget requests include $42,189,365 in expenditures, leaving about a $1.6 million shortfall in 2013.
Source: Staff Report
Douglas also asked Bowen be prepared to answer questions about a new department, a GIS Mapping Department, being established for 2013. Douglas and Justice of the Peace Joel Jones asked why a department with a single employee would have annual costs of $128,000, which seemed to be greater than the cost of the same employee before the job was transferred from the Information Systems Department.
“It looks like there’s a lot of fat and padding in here right now,” Douglas said.
The justices of the peace were working to complete their review of expenditures from each of the departments before making needed cuts. Justice of the Peace Tom Allen said the initial budget requests exceed projected revenue for 2013 by about $1.6 million and he wants to cut enough to balance the budget and not use any reserve or carryover money.
“The last I counted, we’re $1.6 million in the red,” Allen said. “This is just for me personally. I want this to be part of the process where expenditures do not exceed revenues.”
The justices of the peace did hesitate over some proposed cuts Tuesday.
Scott Stober, public services administrator and head of the Road Department, brought in a revised budget that cut about $900,000 from his initial request. Stober told the justices of the peace making cuts of that scope would reduce the department’s planned paving work from about 60 miles to 40 miles. Stober said he was also cutting out some new vehicles and increasing his maintenance budget slightly to keep some older trucks running for another year.
“I’ve done a lot of cutting in my budget,” Stober said. “I’ve cut about $940,000.”
Allen pointed to a proposed cut in fuel and wondered if that was prudent.
“We don’t have any idea what’s going to happen with gas prices,” Allen said. “I don’t want you to cut your department so much in fuel that they’re sitting around the shop playing Ping Pong in August.”
When Jones said he didn’t want to see the county too much from its paving process, Stober said he could make changes if the committee wanted him to.
“I can put back in or I can cut more,” he said.
Allen said he wanted to keep open the possibility of restoring some money to the Road Department, possibly by cutting in other departments.
“I’d like to see us go through the process and see where we stand with everybody else,” Allen said. “I think we need to work on the ones we have to ask to make cuts.”
“We don’t want our roads to fall apart,” Douglas said.