Benton County Budget Includes Raises

BENTONVILLE -- Benton County's justices of the peace have crafted a 2015 budget with about $900,000 in surplus even after raises for employees and elected officials and a $1.4 million list of capital equipment requests.

The Budget Committee endorsed giving employees 1 percent increases, with more money set aside for merit increases, and a $50 monthly contribution to employees health plan. The panel voted to include $647,000 from the general fund and road fund to pay the cost of raises in departments covered by those funds. Merit raises could range up to 5 percent for individual employees.

Brenda Guenther, comptroller, said raises for employees cost about $294,000 for each 1 percent increase, with about $215,000 coming from the general fund.

The justices of the peace also agreed to include 2 percent raises for elected officials. Raises for justices of the peace were still being discussed at deadline.

The justices of the peace were working with a preliminary budget calling for $63.8 million in revenue. With transfers out of the general fund and a reserve required by law the county expects to have $55.7 million to spend. Initial budget requests show about $45.5 million in expenses, including capital items, but excluding raises and new personnel.

That leaves about $10.2 million in reserve. Officials said before Monday's budget meeting they had about $2.4 million to cover new personnel, raises and other added expenses for 2015. When those requests were approved for the budget the total surplus was about $894,000.

The committee recommended nine new employee requests, costing about $436,000, be included in the budget. An additional employee for the Election Commission also was recommended, which would cost about $43,000.

The capital requests approved include five road graders for the Road Department. Jeff Clark, public services administrator, is asking to begin buying five road graders every year and selling them on a five-year rotation. Buying five road graders would cost about $1.5 million with the county expecting to receive about $657,000 by selling five older graders at auction.

Officials have said they can buy the new graders with a guaranteed buy-back plan that after five years would reduce the net cost of each grader from about $300,000 to about $65,000.

The department is also asking for a new excavator, a new backhoe tractor and a mini excavator, along with eight trucks. After the trade-ins for the used vehicles being replaced, the requests total about $1.5 million.

The county also is planning to buy two fire trucks to be put into the rural fire service fleet. Fire Marshal Marc Trollinger told the committee the trucks will be assigned to the Centerton Fire Department and the Little Flock Fire Department.

The Sheriff's Office and Jail have several vehicles on the capital items list, along with a phone system. The Sheriff's Office is asking for about $220,000 for vehicles with other funds paying about $450,000 for the rest of the requests.

The Information Services Department has a plan to spend $196,000 to upgrade the data process system. If approved, the plan will enable the county to save $595,000 in other IT projects that will no longer be necessary, according to officials.

The committee still is considering a request from the Northeast Benton County Fire Department for $95,000 to buy equipment for the department's ambulance service. The justices of the peace had several questions for NEBCO officials and deferred a decision on that request until the Dec. 4 Finance Committee meeting.