Benton County Budget Talks Begin Early

BENTONVILLE -- Benton County's justices of the peace will get an early start on the budget process with the first Budget Committee meeting Sept. 18, nearly a month ahead of the expected date.

Tom Allen, justice of the peace for District 4, is chairman of the Finance Committee that does double duty as the Budget Committee. Many justices of the peace wanted to move up the process after they voted to set a target to cut departmental budgets by 3 percent from this year to next, Allen said.

At A Glance

County Budget

Benton County’s 2014 general fund budget came to $31,786,660, said Mike Crandall, accounting manager. The overall budget came to about $68.5 million, but the additional revenue is mostly dedicated for specific purposes. The Sheriff’s Office and jail and the Road Department make up the bulk of the general fund budget, with the Sheriff’s Office and jail taking up about 51 percen, Crandall said. The Road Department receives money from dedicated revenue sources such as the road millage, but the county also transferred about $1.5 million from the general fund to that department in 2014.

Source: Staff Report

"If we have any direction any of us want to give to the department heads and elected officials we can talk about it in public, and if a majority want to go in that direction we can let the department heads know before they get too far into their 2015 budgets," Allen said.

Mike Crandall, accounting manager, will have the most recent version of the 2014 budget available for the justices of the peace along with the most up-to-date report on expenditures for the year. The county's elected officials and department heads have until Friday to turn in their 2015 budget requests. Crandall said Friday he has received only a few.

"We've gotten budgets from the Public Defenders Office, from Veterans Services and I just got one from John Sudduth for the four departments he's over -- Maintenance, Building Safety, Planning and Environment," Crandall said.

Kurt Moore, justice of the peace for District 13, said his plan is to examine the 2014 budget and offer guidance on how departments can make cuts to reach a 3 percent reduction in spending. Cutting expenditures by 3 percent would provide money for rural ambulance service in the event the county's two funding proposals -- a 0.2-mill increase in property taxes and a rural emergency medical services district with a $40 per household fee -- are rejected by voters in the Nov. 4 general election.

Moore wants elected officials and department heads to have a clear understanding of the Quorum Court's wishes as the budget process begins.

"We're going to use the 2014 budget as a baseline and cut 3 percent off that," Moore said. "Realistically, there are some departments where the budget is so small or it's mostly personnel that they may not be able to take it out of services, supplies and capital and they can't take it out of personnel. The amount of money we'd get from those departments is small anyway, but I do expect some cuts from all of them. The smaller departments may not meet the 3 percent, but the bigger departments, as far as they're concerned, they will most definitely be held to the 3 percent standard."

Personnel vacancies offer department heads and elected officials a way to make cuts in addition to cutting supplies, equipment and other costs, Moore said.

"Not filling a position you would normally fill would be considered part of the cuts," he said.

Barry Moehring, justice of the peace for District 15, hopes the Budget Committee also will have some information on expected revenue for 2015.

"I really want to know two things," he said. "First, what the overall revenue picture looks like. We know sales tax is up by about $70,000. I'd like to see what our property tax looks like. We've also got the voluntary tax for EMS we have to consider. The second things is what the spending trend for this year looks like. What we'll be getting back in turnback money."

Moehring thinks the discussion among the justices of the peace has been wrongly characterized as simply cutting the county budget. The Quorum Court is fulfilling its task of setting priorities for the county's spending, he said.

"We'll have more revenue next year than this year," he said. "We're not cutting the county's budget, we're looking at different priorities. If neither of the ballot measure passes we'll have to accommodate EMS in our regular budget. Until we know what the overall picture looks like we can't know how we'll accomplish that. There are a lot of variables we have to get a handle on."

NW News on 09/07/2014

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