FAYETTEVILLE -- The Washington County Road Department plans to ask the Quorum Court for about $1 million more than it did last year, even as the department is projected to leave $1.9 million unused in this year's budget, records show.
"They definitely have to prove the need, but they also have to prove they can do [their planned projects] within a year," said Justice of the Peace Eva Madison, a Democrat representing northeastern Fayetteville. "If they have that much extra money, it should go back to general purposes."
Superintendent Charles Ward said the Road Department needs roughly $1 million more next year to buy heavy equipment to maintain and repair roads. The amount the department doesn't expect to use this year is partly because of project delays resulting from equipment failures, he said.
The request raises the Road Department's proposed budget to $10.6 million to spend next year, records show. That's about 17 percent of the county's roughly $62 million total budget.
The amount the Road Department is requesting for equipment also is about the same as what the Quorum Court transferred from a Road Department savings fund and to the unrestricted, unappropriated reserve at the end of last year.
The Quorum Court cannot keep taking money from the Road Department and expect quality roads, Ward said.
But Madison said she worries the Road Department -- even if its request is fully funded -- doesn't have the capability to do the work within a year. Other justices of the peace are questioning what projects are being completed and what projects the Road Department has planned.
"I want them to use the money wisely, and I want them to use it for the construction of roads and bridges and take care of what they've got," said Justice of the Peace Robert Dennis, a Republican representing part of the western side of the county that includes Farmington.
Dennis has not seen a Road Department plan that shows what projects are a priority or lays out what has been completed so far, he said. Madison said no plan exists.
George Butler, the county judge's chief of staff, said he hadn't yet talked with Ward, but he knew work on Orr Road Bridge is planned for next year. The span, built in 1924, crosses the Illinois River but is structurally deficient and closed. The bridge is about half a mile south of Arkansas 265, near the Hogeye community.
Ward said he's working on a 2017 road plan, but the plan wasn't available by Friday.
Comptroller Ashley Farber said the Road Department will include a letter explaining its needs for justices of the peace. That letter wasn't available Friday.
"For the size of their budget, I think they should be telling us: 'This is what we are going to do,'" Madison said.
The department in the past has received 40 percent of a 1 percent sales tax that voters passed in the 1980s. The Quorum Court passed a resolution at the time laying out for voters how the money would be split -- that split included money for the Road Department, library and jail, Madison said.
Last year, the Quorum Court effectively reduced the amount going to the Road Department to 23 percent of the 1 percent sales tax. This year's request puts the Road Department's part of the tax back at 40 percent.
If the Road Department's proposed 2017 budget is approved, the department will spend heavily from money it gets from the 1 percent county tax, Farber said. Only about $143,000 will be left in its reserve, which functions like a savings account within the department's budget, Farber said.
The fact the Road Department had carryover money this year also isn't unusual, Farber said.
The department had $341,724 left in 2014 and $311,582 in 2015, Farber said. That money helps the county with projected carryover revenue next year, she said.
Several other departments -- including the treasurer's and judge's offices -- also have money left unspent in their budgets, Farber said. The sheriff's office had $489,098 leftover last year, for example, she said.
Benton County's Road Department, with a roughly $15 million budget this year, doesn't have leftover money at the end of each year, Comptroller Brenda Guenther said. The department spends the money budgeted, she said.
Butler said that last year he worried the move that effectively reduced the tax split would become permanent. He said Thursday that he still is worried about the effect that reducing the tax will have on the Road Department.
Without the equipment, roadwork will slow, projects will be delayed or never started, and roads will deteriorate, Ward said.
"If you continually neglect the road, it's going to continually get worse and worse," Ward said. "Can [we] operate on a lesser budget? Yes, we can -- we just provide less service."
Metro on 09/26/2016