BENTONVILLE -- Benton County Judge Bob Clinard said Thursday he would prefer delaying cuts to the Road Department budget justices of the peace are considering as they search for money.
The Finance Committee voted last week to cut the Road Department's asphalt budget $450,000 and use the money to pay for part of the cost of rural ambulance service through the end of the year.
The county has time to consider options before cutting the department's budget, Clinard said. The county is working on 2014 contracts with cities and has made no payments in 2014, he said. As long as the county is committed to paying the cities before the end of the fiscal year, Clinard said he thinks they'll continue to work on a solution.
"I just felt like if they could come up with a plan to assure the cities they will be paid there's no need to take it out of the budget immediately," Clinard said.
"We don't know, with all this storm damage from last year we're still working on, we don't know how much paving we'll be able to do. It may be that nothing really gets cut, we just spend less."
Clinard sent a letter to the justices of the peace outlining his thoughts on the ambulance funding and the Road Department budget. He said the county has never done $2.6 million of asphalt work in a year, with $2.2 million of work being about the most that has been done.
There may be money in other budgets that can be used as the year progresses, not just in the Road Department, Clinard said. The county produces a monthly report so justices of the peace can monitor money being spent and adjust it as needed, he said.
"I think we have time to thoughtfully consider that all of the elected officials will be able to contribute to the EMS funding and find it in budget funds or turnback," Clinard told the justices of the peace in a letter.
Tom Allen, justice of the peace for District 4 and chairman of the Finance Committee, said he was aware of Clinard's arguments.
"It's not something I haven't heard before," Allen said of the letter. "It's certainly something we've considered. Personally, I'd like to wrap this up and have it done with so we don't have any possibility of losing that money throughout the year. To me, there's no point in just waiting until the end of the year."
Kurt Moore, justice of the peace for District 13 and chairman of the Quorum Court's Committee of the Whole, also said he was inclined to transfer the money now. Moore said there may not be a fiscal need to, but there are other "political" considerations.
"It basically comes down to when do we have to cut the check," Moore said. "If we're not going to cut the check until the fall it might wait. But there's also a 'political' issue about encumbering the money now.
"I don't think there's any great chance of them spending all that this year because of the flood damage. I am concerned about them transferring that money from one line item to another. That can be done with just the judge's signature. And I've already gotten some calls from people saying they called the Road Department and were told they weren't going to be able to do everything because the Quorum Court cut our budget. If they're going to throw us under the bus on this I'm going to have to do some hard thinking if they're sitting there making us look bad, saying 'The Quorum Court cut our budget.'"
NW News on 02/28/2014