Between The Lines: Counties Tackle Funding Challenges

Budget challenges confront at least three Northwest Arkansas counties this year, as quorum courts in each wrangle their respective finances.

Budget challenges aren't unfamiliar to Arkansas counties. Counties often find themselves with more demand than they have revenue to address them.

This year stands out as particularly challenging, however.

Think first about Madison County.

Voters there rejected a 1 percent sales tax increase this month that would have paid for jail improvements and other county needs.

Those jail improvements were especially critical, given an earlier finding by a regional Criminal Detention Facilities Review Committee that the county's jail was out of compliance with both staffing and facilities standards.

The jail was on probation pending the election. The county, which had already been required to improve staffing, was supposed to have a long-term plan in place to improve the facilities by Nov. 5. That plan depended on passage of the tax hike, which failed with 2,910 voting against it and 2,182 voting for it.

The measure was expected to generate $1 million annually, with 25 percent going to a jail building fund. It would have been levied for 12 years.

Madison County's eight-bed jail was built back in the 1980s and has been allowed to remain open despite non-compliance with state standards. Its closure will require transport of Madison County prisoners to other counties.

It is not a long-term solution to the problem. Sending prisoners out of county will be inconvenient and expensive. Besides, Madison County's budget challenges go beyond jail needs.

This was the second rejection by voters of a tax plan to increase revenue, which leaves the county with huge challenges as it works on a 2015 county budget.

Voters in Benton County, on the other hand, helped that county out tremendously, approving a 0.2-mill countywide property tax dedicated to rural ambulance service.

The county would have had to make drastic budget cuts to cover the anticipated payment to cities to run outside their respective jurisdictions into the rural county.

Taxpayers have agreed to help fill the funding void, but there are some questions yet to be resolved.

A big one involves the Northeast Benton County Emergency Medical Services District, which charges a per-household fee within its jurisdiction for the service it delivers there.

NEBCO officials want to know if that organization will get any of the money from the millage hike.

The argument is about how the service district, which answers EMS runs within its own jurisdiction, is different from cities, which are running outside their jurisdictions to serve rural county residents.

Arguably, providing subsidy to NEBCO would be akin to the county using these newly dedicated dollars to subsidize cities to serve city residents, something city residents pay for with city taxes.

The bigger challenge for Benton County is spreading its available dollars to meet all manner of county service demands.

The job was made immensely easier with passage of the millage for emergency services, but the county budget is still a work in progress.

In Washington County, the Quorum Court last week approved service cuts to keep property taxes the same and still give employees a raise next year.

The court approved a $58.7 million budget that included roughly $4 million in service cuts.

The budget has been months in the making with Quorum Court members ultimately agreeing to trim $1.75 million from the road budget for paving roads, repairing bridges and dealing with ice and snow.

They also cut $300,000 from the sheriff's enforcement budget, with the expectation that the department will hold on to some vehicles longer than they would ordinarily.

There were more cuts across the budget, most of which probably won't be all that noticeable to county residents but may challenge county employees.

But they're getting a 2 percent raise, not as much as they've being getting but a raise nonetheless.

For the record, the cuts that will be most noticeable to some county residents will be those to the road department.

There might have been a time in county government when the road department was the last place to look for budget cuts, but things have changed.

These days, counties have many more urban residents than rural ones, and priorities change with demographics.

The budget adopted will get Washington County through another year, and maybe with little complaint.

That assumes a mild winter, of course.

If the winter is particularly awful or rural roads deteriorate rapidly, the Quorum Court -- or at least the rural representatives -- will hear about it.

BRENDA BLAGG IS A FREELANCE COLUMNIST AND LONGTIME JOURNALIST IN NORTHWEST ARKANSAS.

Commentary on 11/23/2014

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