BENTONVILLE -- Benton County's justices of the peace voted Monday to ask all county departments to cut 3 percent from their supplies and other services budgets as they continued honing the county's 2017 budget.
The county's Finance Committee, meeting as the Budget Committee, focused on cutting budget requests to bring the county's spending in line with expected revenue. Tom Allen, justice of the peace for District 4 and committee chairman, said he thinks the budget process is nearly done.
What’s next
Benton County’s justices of the peace will resume work on the county’s 2017 budget when the Finance Committee meets again as the Budget Committee at 6 p.m. Nov. 28 in the Quorum Courtroom in the County Administration Building, 215 E. Central Ave., in Bentonville.
"I feel pretty good about where we're at," Allen said. "I think we're real close. I'm confident we'll come to an agreement on a budget that's balanced at our next meeting."
Brenda Guenther, comptroller, said the most current projections show the county with about a $4.2 million surplus in anticipated revenue over operating expenses. Guenther said the elected officials and department heads submitted about $4.8 million in capital requests and $2.1 million in personnel requests, including raises. If all of those requests were approved, Guenther reported, the county would have to find $2.7 million to cover the cost of the requests.
At the beginning of Monday's meeting, Guenther told the justices of the peace that said, with none of the new personnel requests having been considered, they still needed to identify about $837,833 in cuts to balance the budget.
The committee reviewed requests for new personnel again Monday, with seven of 13 personnel requests being forwarded on for continued discussion. The initial request of 13 new positions had an estimated cost of about $688,000. The seven new positions remaining under consideration would cost the county about $370,000.
The justices of the peace indicated they favored some positions over others because the new employees were expected to generate some revenue to offset their employment costs. Sheriff Meyer Gilbert said the warrants officers his department is seeking would, in time, bring in more money than they will cost. Initially, according to Gilbert and Major Shawn Holloway, they would expect two warrants officers to generate about half the cost of hiring them. Similarly, John Sudduth, the county's general services administrator, said a new building inspector will help improve the county's level of service and bring in some additional revenue. Sudduth said the employees in the Building Department now bring in revenue equal to about 73 percent of their employment costs and he would estimate the new building inspector to bring in from 65 to 70 percent of the $48,000 cost of the position.
The justices of the peace also agreed to move the $495,000 cost of new voting equipment for the county from the Election Commission's 2017 operating budget to the county's capital reserve funds, since the purchase will be a one-time expense and not an ongoing budget items.
The budget proposals still include a recommendation for employees to receive 1 percent cost-of-living raises and for elected officials to have a pool of another 3 percent from which to give merit raises. Ludwig said the Budget Committee will probably set a cap for individual raises. Barb Ludwig, human resources administrator, said the raises will cost the general and road funds about $775,812 and other funds about $183,433, if the full amount is approved. Each 1 percent raise costs the county about $248,000. The 3 percent raises would include the county's elected officials but not justices of the peace.
The panel left on hold a plan to increase pay for elected officials to 80 percent of the state maximum. Ludwig said the raises would increase the costs about $35,108 in the general fund and about $33,449 in the commissioned funds. The county's Personnel Committee didn't recommend pay increases for justices of the peace but the Budget Committee revived the issue. Ludwig said raising pay for justices of the peace to 60 percent of the state maximum would cost the county about $17,600.
The committee also discussed requests for capital items at Monday's meeting. Guenther said cuts to those requests so far total about $725,000, with about $400,000 of those cuts coming from the Road Department's list.
Barry Moehring, justice of the peace for District 15, said the budget process for 2017 has run the same course as years past, with the justices of the peace making cuts to reach a budget they feel comfortable with.
""I think we're on track," he said. "We made a lot of progress tonight. It always comes down to this point. We've got a conservative Quorum Court, and we always get to a point where we sharpen our pencils and make some cuts. I'm good with that."
NW News on 11/15/2016