Benton County Eyes Budget Cuts

BENTONVILLE -- Benton County officials say they will need to cut the county's current budget by 3 percent if voters reject rural ambulance funding plans on the Nov. 4 ballot.

Justices of the peace asked for the budget cuts to be made as the starting point for the 2015 budget process that began this month. Mike Crandall, accounting manager, sent an email to elected officials and department heads on Aug. 13 alerting them of the need to make cuts.

AT A GLANCE

Budget Work

Benton County’s 2015 budget process began this month with elected officials and department heads being tasked with preparing budget requests. Those requests will be reviewed with the county comptroller in September and sent to the Quorum Court’s Budget Committee in October. The Quorum Court approves the final budget in December.

Source: Staff Report

"We have to assume that neither measure going before the voters is going to pass and so we have to be prepared for it," Kurt Moore, justice of the peace for District 13, said Monday. "If one or both measures is passed it's easier to put the money back in than it would be to cut it out at the last minute."

The county will ask voters to approve plans to establish a dedicated revenue source for rural ambulance service.

One proposal would levy a countywide 0.2 mill property tax increase that would cost property owners about $4 a year on property valued at $100,000 and raise about $833,981 a year. All county voters will be able to vote on the proposed millage increase.

The second funding plan would establish an emergency medical services district that would cover the unincorporated areas of the county other than the area served by the Northeast Benton County Fire Department's ambulance service. Voters in the proposed district will be asked to approve the formation of the district and a $40 annual fee to be assessed to all households in the district. The proposed fee would raise about $527,868, Crandall said.

The county will pay the seven cities that provide rural ambulance service about $942,000 this year and expects that cost to rise to about $1.1 million in 2015.

A 3 percent across-the-board cut will net the county about $953,600 in savings, Crandall said. A voluntary ambulance tax the county has placed on residents property tax statements has brought in about $111,800 so far this year, Crandall said.

County Judge Bob Clinard views the 3 percent reduction as a goal, and not a hard target.

"That's a suggestion," he said. "Rather than specifically cutting line items or cutting personnel -- this person or that person -- I suggested an across-the-board cut. Every elected official is working on it. It's going to take about 3 percent to make up the cost of ambulance service if the voters don't approve the funding plans."

Cutting by department budget rather than every line items is the only way to reach the goal, Clinard said.

"There are some things that can't be cut." he said. "There are certain things that are fixed costs."

County Clerk Tena O'Brien said she will have to look hard to find 3 percent cuts in her budget. The Clerk's Office already is working on a tight budget, she said.

"Right now, halfway through the year, we're right at 50 percent of our budget, which tells me I've done a pretty good job of budgeting," O'Brien said.

Some costs in her office fluctuate from year to year and may need to be increased next year rather than be cut, O'Brien said.

"Next year we do an odd-year mailing that's mandatory," she said. "We have to send out notices to all the residents in Benton County who haven't voted in the past two years, so our budget for postage is going to be bigger."

Tom Allen, justice of the peace for District 4 and chairman of the Finance Committee, said the justices of the peace would prefer to have the elected officials and department heads make the cuts than to have to cut the budgets as a committee. The cuts will unavoidably reduce basic services to county residents, Allen said. With the bulk of the budget being made up by the Road Department and the Sheriff's Office, those department will have to make the biggest cuts in dollars, he said.

"It's challenge, I know," Allen said. "I've had mixed responses. I've had some say they can find it and I've had others say they can't. The ideal situation is that both initiatives pass and we won't have to cut as much. But we need to be prepared if both initiatives fail. We need to be prepared to see what we need to cut. Some of those cuts are likely to be pretty painful. We've tried hard not to have to cut the Road Department or cut services in the Sheriff's Office, but those two departments are 90-plus percent of our budget. Some of the other departments don't have particularly big budgets so even if they make the cuts it won't amount to that much money."

NW News on 08/19/2014

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