FAYETTEVILLE -- County officials said Tuesday they have caught another mistake in the Washington County budget.
"It seems to happen every year about this time," Treasurer Bobby Hill said. "Something comes up -- with our money being so tight, that is a concern."
The collector's final settlement, finished in December, has a roughly $230,000 mistake that mostly will be covered by unrestricted reserve, Hill said. The mistake is the second found in the budget in the past four months.
A mistake found in the assessor's office in January cost roughly $1 million.
Collector Angela Wood said the newest mistake was made last year by a bookkeeper who no longer works with the county. Assessor penalties apparently were put in the wrong line, she said.
Wood is newly elected and wasn't in charge when the mistake was made.
Wood brought in a consultant who found the error, once she came into office, Wood said. Wood said her office is working on an order for an adjustment to the budget, she said.
The county's unrestricted reserve has fallen from about $6.9 million to about $6.5 million in the first four months of this year, according to records presented during the Finance and Budget Committee on Tuesday. The reserve includes money set aside to use for the jail or insurance reserve, Comptroller Ashley Farber said.
The money to cover the most-recent mistake isn't included in those figures, officials say.
The county also is bracing for possible insurance costs. About $900,000 in health care claims was filed by employees in March alone, Hill said. The health insurance fund started the year at $2.2 million but has dropped to about $1.4 million, Hill said.
Justices of the peace are waiting to see whether any of the money is reimbursed via a stop-loss program, said Justice of the Peace Eva Madison, a Democrat who represents northeastern Fayetteville.
The Quorum Court put money into the fund at least the past two years to keep it solvent. Last year, the county used reserve and put about $821,000 into the fund after the money was left out of the budget.
Justices of the peace say they are worried about the budget.
Revenue this year is expected to be about $61 million, but the county plans to spend about $66 million, according to numbers Hill provided in January.
"We need to keep an eye on revenue and expenditures and really be focusing on these issues," Madison said.
NW News on 04/12/2017