Benton County committee OKs 2017 budget

BENTONVILLE -- Benton County's justices of the peace Monday recommended higher salaries for the county's elected officials and justices of the peace, linking their pay to state-set ranges and including annual raises as approved by the state.

The county's Finance Committee, meeting as the Budget Committee, agreed to set Benton County elected officials pay at 80 percent of the maximum set by the state. The state sets minimum and maximum pay for county elected officials, based on county population. Pay for justices of the peace is to be set at 60 percent of the state-approved maximum, with the same annual pay increases. Benton County's elected officials are now at 74 percent or 75 percent of the state maximum pay while justices of the peace are at 53 percent of the maximum. If the raises remain in the budget, the elected officials' pay raises will be around $6,000 a year and the pay for justices of the peace will go up by about $1,000 a year.

County budget

Benton County’s Finance Committee will review the county’s 2017 budget ordinance when the committee meets at 6 p.m. Dec. 6 in the Quorum Courtroom at the County Administration Building, 215 E. Central Ave. in Bentonville.

Source: Staff report

Barb Ludwig, human resources administrator, said increasing the elected officials pay to the 80 percent mark will cost the county about $35,000 in 2017. Raising the pay for justices of the peace to the 60 percent mark will cost the county about $17,000 next year, she said.

The state ranges have been increased by 3 percent a year, according to Ludwig. Some justices of the peace were reluctant to have raises for elected officials and justices of the peace set by ordinance without some linkage to raises for employees.

"I can't see the elected officials getting bigger raises than the employees," Brent Meyers, justice of the peace for District 14, said during the discussion.

Ludwig said the language of the proposed ordinance specifies the annual 3 percent raises for elected officials will be enacted only if employees receive raises of 3 percent or more.

Joel Jones, justice of the peace for District 7, argued for the inclusion of pay increases for justices of the peace in the ordinance, removing it from the county's annual budget debate.

"Otherwise, I think we're shooting ourselves in the foot," Jones said. "We're setting ourselves up to be second-class elected officials."

Benton County's 2017 budget is projected to have a surplus of $125,000 to $150,000 after the county's justices of the peace approved some spending adjustments Monday.

The Budget Committee recommended an ordinance be sent to the Finance Committee on Dec. 6, to the Committee of the Whole on Dec. 13, and then on for final consideration by the full Quorum Court on Dec. 20.

The 2017 budget includes money for employee raises, with a combination of a 1 percent cost-of-living raise and a pool of money to be used for merit raises. Raises for individual employees was capped at 5 percent. The budget also includes capital items, such as new road graders and other equipment for the Road Department and two fire trucks for the county fire service, along with some new personnel and wage and salary adjustments.

At the end of the most recent budget session the justices of the peace asked elected officials and department heads to try and cut supplies and other services line-item budgets by 3 percent, which would net the county about $240,000, said Brenda Guenther, comptroller. The justices of the peace were within $90,000 of balancing the budget after that meeting.

The committee also had asked Guenther to work with the county's elected officials and department heads to develop revenue projections associated with new positions the justices of the peace have approved for next year, including warrants officers for the Sheriff's Office and a building inspector for the Planning Division, and to estimate revenue from other sources such as selling vehicles and equipment that is being replaced.

Guenther said at the beginning of Monday's meeting the adjustments yielded a $104,000 budget surplus. That was reduced by $10,000 when the justices of the peace agreed to set aside $10,000 to support the Illinois River Watershed partnership. Pay raises for elected officials also reduced the projected surplus, but the justices of the peace agreed to cut about $83,000 from the budget that had been included to comply with proposed new federal guideline on overtime pay. The implementation of those regulations have been stayed by a federal court judge in Texas. At the end of Monday's meeting, Guenther said the surplus will probably be between $125,000 and $150,000. Guenther also said the county should receive about $1.3 million in turnback, which is money appropriated but not spent, when the 2016 budget year is finalized.

NW News on 11/29/2016

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