BENTONVILLE -- Benton County's justices of the peace will have about $1.9 million to work with as they continue developing the county's 2015 budget.
The county's Finance Committee held another budget meeting Monday, reviewing the county's expected revenue and expenditures and looking at departmental budgets and capital requests. The committee was still meeting late Monday night. The next budget meeting was set at 6 p.m. Nov. 24 in the Quorum Courtroom at the County Administration Building.
At A Glance
County Budget
Benton County is expecting about $63.8 million in anticipated available money in the general fund and road fund for 2015. With transfers out of the general fund and a reserve fund required by state law the county expects to have $55.7 million in unappropriated money. The county’s initial budget requests show about $45.5 million in expenses, leaving the county with about $10.2 million in unappropriated money.
Source: Benton County
Brenda Guenther, the county's comptroller, told the justices of the peace the county should have a beginning balance of about $14.5 million and end 2015 with a balance of about $16.4 million.
"This does include capital items," Tom Allen, justice of the peace for District 4 and committee chairman, said of the budget figures. "This does not include raises and it does not include any new personnel."
Guenther said raises for county employees cost about $305,000 for each 1 percent increase in pay.
The committee also discussed possible changes in the county's health plan. Barb Ludwig, human resources manager, told the county's Finance Committee earlier this month the health program has had "a catastrophic year" for costs in 2014 and asked the Quorum Court to approve transferring $1 million from the plan's reserve to cover expected costs for 2014. Ludwig said the plan had claims of more than $609,000 from just seven people and will probably have about $1.3 million in prescription drug claims by the end of the year.
Ludwig also presented the justices of the peace with a plan to recoup some losses, which includes charging employees a $25 monthly fee with additional charges for spouses. The proposal would also drop coverage for long-term disability claims and coverage of gastric bypass procedures. Also, the county would increase the amount it funds the plan by $50 per month for each employee. Several of the justices of the peace said they wanted more information and other options to consider.
Ludwig said Monday the health plan will end 2014 with a positive balance of about $880,000, but she is concerned that a year with claims similar to 2014 could deplete that balance. Several justices of the peace suggested the county should plan for a more normal year, which Ludwig said would average two or three large claims rather than the seven large claims made in 2014.
"Even if we did nothing this year and have a bad year like we did this year we still wouldn't go negative because we have a balance," Joel Jones, justice of the peace for District 7, said during the discussion. "I'd like to see us do something so we're fairly positive we won't go into the negative and have to take it out of reserves."
Allen said he would rather wait and be able to study the health plan and have some indication of the trend for 2015 before the county takes action to increase costs to employees.
"It's not a 'sky is falling' situation," Allen said. "I think we leave it as is, schedule a Personnel meeting and start discussing changes for next year."
NW News on 11/18/2014