BENTONVILLE -- Benton County's budget committee Monday endorsed setting aside money for merit raises for employees, with a pool of money to provide a 2 percent increase in salary costs, with individual employees having their increases capped at 5 percent.
The justices of the peace debated whether to have all of the money put toward merit raises or include some cost-of-living raises that would cover all employees.
Benton County budget
Benton County’s justices of the peace have two more Budget Committee meetings scheduled as they continue their work on the 2016 budget. The committee is set to meet at 5 p.m. Nov. 23 and at 5 p.m. Dec. 3. All of the meetings are to be held in the Quorum Courtroom at the County Administration Building, 215 E. Central Ave. in Bentonville.
Source: Staff report
Ron Easley, justice of the peace for District 1, argued all county employees in good standing deserved some raise.
I would like to see something so that everyone with Benton County will get something if they're in good standing with the county," Easley said, suggesting setting aside money for a half percent cost-of-living raise and 1.5 percent for merit raises.
Other justices of the peace argued for merit raises as a way of rewarding good employees and sending a message to those who are not performing to the same standards.
"I'd rather give them the flexibility to really reward those employees who are doing a great job and they're out there right now," Barry Moehring, justice of the peace for District 15, said during the discussion. "Frankly, for those not up to snuff, that's a message as well. That's the way it is in the real world."
The justices of the peace began working on personnel and capital requests for the county's 2016 budget while eyeing a projected $660,000 budget shortfall from the end of their past session. The panel pared the list of new personnel requests by half and agreed to have several department heads come to the next meeting to discuss some of the remaining requests.
When the committee began reviewing capital requests the budget deficit was about $1.2 million. the justices of the peace agreed to take $350,000 for a project to place a new communications tower on Whitney Mountain out of the county's capital reserve fund, leaving a shortfall of about $845,000. The panel agreed to ask the Road Department to cut its capital equipment requests by about $350,000. The committee also agreed to ask the Road Department and Sheriff's Office to consider reducing their fuel budgets. the justices of the peace asked for the Road Department to cut its fuel budget by $250,000 and the Sheriff's Office to cut its fuel budget by $100,000. Both departments will be asked to the next meeting to discuss the cuts. The committee also agreed to trim the Road Department's asphalt budget by about $75,000.
Tom Allen justice of the peace for District 4 and chairman of the committee, asked Brenda Guenther, comptroller, to also ask the smaller departments to look $67,762 in cuts needed to reach a balanced budget.
Guenther told the panel last week the proposed budget for the departments paid from the general and road funds includes about $4.6 million in capital requests. The budget also reflects a transfer of $800,000 into the special capital reserve fund, which the justices of the peace have designated for larger capital projects, such buildings or bridges. The shortfall also takes into account an $800,000 transfer from the recorders cost fund, which is money received by the Circuit Clerk's Office for recording real estate documents.
Guenther said last week the revenue for the general and road funds is expected to grow $2.1 million to more than $53 million in 2016. Guenther said initial budget requests for the departments paid for by the general fund and road fund total about $51.4 million.
Guenther said the property tax revenue for 2016 should be about $450,000 more than 2015. Guenther said the Collector's Office estimates $19.9 million in property tax revenue this year. Property tax revenue for 2016 is projected at $20,255,828. Guenther said sales tax revenue for 2015 should be about $8 million, which is around $700,000 more than budgeted. The Quorum Court approved its 2015 budget with no increase in sales tax revenue and the 2016 budget projection is also flat, with sales tax revenue for 2016 at $8 million. Guenther said total revenue for the general fund should be about $41.8 million for 2016, up from $41.5 million in 2015. Road fund revenue also is expected to grow, with the net road fund revenue in 2016 estimated at $10.8 million, up from about $9.7 million in 2015. Guenther estimated the total revenue for the general and road funds will grow from $51.2 million in 2015 to an estimated $53.9 million in 2016.
The county is also projecting a substantial increase in the jail fees it collects from the state for holding state prisoners in the jail until they can be transferred to a prison. The county also collects some fees from cities for holding offenders in the jail. The county budgeted for $1.5 million in jail fees for 2015 and Guenther estimated the 2015 revenue will be more than $3 million.
NW News on 11/17/2015