BENTONVILLE -- Benton County's justices of the peace hope to complete work on the county's 2016 budget next week with a $100,000 surplus from the county's projected annual revenue.
The county's Budget Committee on Monday continued its review of personnel and capital equipment requests in the 2016 budget, beginning the review with a projected surplus of about $67,000, according to Brenda Guenther, comptroller. After some minor adjustments the projected surplus was reduced to about $48,000. The justices of the peace directed Guenther to look at the budget line for fuel, oil and lubricants in all of the county's departments with an eye toward increasing that overall budget surplus to $100,000. Barry Moehring, justice of the peace for District 15, suggested the additional savings the committee wants could be found in those line items.
What’s next
Benton County’s Budget Committee plans to complete its work on the county’s 2016 budget when the committee meets on Dec. 3, after the regularly Finance Committee meeting which is set to begin at 5 p.m. in the Quorum Courtroom of the County Administration Building, 215 E. Central Ave. in Bentonville. When the budget is approved by the Budget Committee it will go to the Dec. 8 meeting of the Committee of the Whole for review and then to the Dec. 17 meeting of the Quorum Court for final approval.
Source: Staff report
"IT is going to use maybe 25 percent of their budget," Moehring said of the Information Technology Department's 2015 budget for fuel, oil and lubricants. "It's not a huge number, but it's a number."
"I think you can easily find $52,000 in fuel in this budget," Moehring said. "I think you can find it and get to $100,000 pretty quick, if that's your goal."
The committee largely confirmed cuts that had been made in its last meeting, including asking for $350,000 in cuts from the Road Department's capital equipment requests. The justices of the peace agreed they want Jeff Clark, the county's public services administrator and head of the Road Department, to look at his capital requests first, but indicated they will consider cuts in other areas of the department's budget.
"He needs to take it out of capital," Tom Allen, justice of the peace for District 4 and chairman of the committee, said of the Road Department cuts. "If he can't get there, then he needs to look at other areas."
Guenther has told the justices of the peace 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 the revenue for the general and road funds is expected to grow by $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 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.
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 11/24/2015