Benton County Officials Eye Budget Cuts

— Benton County officials Tuesday put a hiring freeze on hold and instead targeted budget cuts for all departments to make money available for rural ambulance service.

The Finance Committee discussed the freeze at its regular meeting. Instead of acting on the hiring freeze, they set a special budget meeting for April 22 and asked elected officials to work on cutting their budgets.

At A Glance

Committee Action

Benton County’s Finance Committee met Tuesday and approved:

• Spending $1,450 from the Arkansas Festival GIF Grant

• Spending $4,500 from the Adult Drug Court Discretionary Grant

• Spending $20,000 from the Maysville Community Center GIF Grant

• Spending $20,000 from the County Clerk’s cost fund to cover moving expenses associated with the Rogers office.

Source: Staff Report

Tom Allen, justice of the peace for District 4 and chairman of the committee, said he'll work with Sarah Daniels, comptroller, and Mike Crandall, accounting manager, to develop budget targets to meet.

Allen said the justices of the peace will make cuts on their own if needed so the county can move forward with paying for ambulance service for 2014 and begin working on a permanent solution.

"The clock is ticking," Allen said. "I don't want to say we're wasting time but precious time is slipping away. I want them to know if you don't make cuts we're going to make the cuts."

Kurt Moore, justice of the peace for District 13, suggested setting a target of a certain percentage of cuts to "nonessential items" and Allen said he would work with Daniels and Crandall to do that.

"We've got to make some tough decisions that may not be popular but they're appropriate," Allen said.

The county is working to pay for rural ambulance service in the wake of voters' rejection of an emergency medical services district and fee. The county had $236,000 in the budget for ambulance service and the justices of the peace have already recommended cutting $450,000 from the Road Department, leaving the county $256,339 short of the amount needed.

A motion to take the amount from reserve was defeated Tuesday with several saying they doubted the Quorum Court would replenish the reserve.

"Quite frankly, I don't trust us," Joel Jones, justice of the peace for District 7, said during the discussion.

Barb Ludwig, human resources manager, told the committee there are two vacant positions paid from the general fund in the budget. One post is for an assistant human resources manager, which pays $47,975 and the second is for a planning division manager, which pays $40,280. Leaving those positions vacant would save the county $88,256, she said.

Ludwig also presented 15 positions paid from commissioned accounts, which are separate from the general fund. One of those is under the county judge, one under the county clerk, one under the county collector and one under the prosecutor. Eleven jobs in the assessor's office are paid for through 2014 but vacant, according to Ludwig.

If all 15 were left vacant, she said, the savings would be $36,845.

Ludwig also told the panel the county typically has money budgeted for personnel unspent and turned back at the end of the year. In 2011, she said, the county had $770,000 in personnel turnback. In 2012, it had $1 million and in 2013 had $670,000.

Jones said he objected to using the money from reserve, even though he understood the logic of doing so.

"If we do that I don't think we're going to go forward with as many cuts as we need to," Jones said.

Also Tuesday, the committee recommended amending the 2012 budget to correct a transfer to the capital projects fund that was planned but never made. Money for Fisher Ford Bridge was budgeted in 2012 but the project was delayed and the transfer was never made.

Daniels said state auditors said ordinances require the transfer be made, and the committee voted to amend the 2012 budget to "zero out" the $1.8 million.

"I think she acted precisely how we wanted her to," Allen said. "We didn't spend any money."

The committee also heard a report on the sales tax revenue for February. The county received $597,502 in February, down from the same month in 2013. For the year, the county's sales tax revenue is down by $87,472.

NW News on 03/05/2014

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