BENTONVILLE -- Benton County's justices of the peace finished work on the county's 2018 budget Monday, sending the spending plan on for approval by the full Quorum Court.
"We've got a good balanced budget, with some room to spare," Tom Allen, justice of the peace for District 4 and chairman of the Budget Committee, said Monday. "That's not a bad thing, to have a little cushion. The question is, are we leaving anything out?"
Susan Anglin, justice of the peace for District 9, said she supported the proposed budget and keeping the surplus.
"I would rather see us have the cushion because we don't know what we're going to be facing," Anglin said.
"We had to stop somewhere and there's a whole lot of needed things not in there," Joel Edwards, justice of the peace for District 15, said of the proposed budget.
Joel Jones, justice of the peace for District 7, asked for a comparison of the initial budget proposals and the final budget.
"Give us an overview of the entire process and where we ended up," Jones said.
After more than an hour of discussion, the justices of the peace voted unanimously to send the budget on to the Finance Committee, set to meet Dec. 5. From there, the budget would be considered by the Committee of the Whole on Dec. 12 and the Quorum Court on Dec. 21.
Brenda Guenther, comptroller, gave the justices of the peace an overview of the budget, which shows the county having about $500,000 more in projected revenue than spending for next year.
The budget includes raises for employees, with the justices of the peace approving a $485,000 pool of money to give all employees a 2 percent cost-of-living increase and another $242,000 for merit raises. Merit raises are capped at 3 percent, giving a maximum raise of 5 percent for individual employees. Elected officials will receive 3 percent raises.
The Budget Committee also recommended hiring 10 additional employees, with seven of those being in the Sheriff's Office and Jail. The Prosecuting Attorney, Public Defender and Juvenile Probation Department each had one new employee approved. The additional employees will cost the county about $512,000 in 2018.
The justices of the peace also agreed to begin discussing how to pay for the proposed new $25 million courts building. The county has considered a bond issue to pay for the project, using existing revenue, or a temporary sales tax.
Pat Adams, justice of the peace for District 6, said he wanted to come to a decision on a funding method quickly, in order to have a ballot issue ready for the May primary election. Adams said he also wanted the county to be able to make changes and bring a revised proposal back to the voters in November if the initial proposal is rejected.
"I'd like to have two shots at it next year, just in case," Adams said.
NW News on 11/28/2017