Fund balance may be used to reduce county budget hike

It looks as though about $250,000 from Washington County's undesignated fund balance could be used to reduce the amount of the proposed hike in the fiscal year 2018‑2019 budget, meaning a possible increase of about 2% rather than the 6.67% previously anticipated, reports Washington County Commission Chair Chris Gardner. The cause of the significant increase to the county's budget is partially found in the request by the sheriff's department for three additional deputies and their equipment, including vehicles.
Sheriff department figures presented at an October 30 meeting were a bit less than a previous version because of an overall decrease in health insurance, but the increase came to $318,611 plus $82,315 in employee benefits for a total of $400,926. The sheriff's department's total expenditures would be $1.489 million for 2019. The county's total proposed expenditure for 2019 is about $7.84 million, which is an increase of $622,400 over the 2018 budget.
Since the October 30 meeting, the three county commissioners have been working on budget cut recommendations for the county budget committee, which had taken the unprecedented step of asking the commissioners for the recommendations.
The first snowstorm of the season prevented the budget committee from meeting on Friday, November 16, to go over the commissioners' suggestions. This may have worked to the committee's advantage as it gave the commissioners additional time to work on their recommendations, including the use of additional audited figures the county treasurer had been waiting on. Gardner explains that Treasurer Jill Holmes was able to recommend that the county could release about a quarter of a million dollars from the undesignated fund balance without jeopardizing the fiscal safety of the county's ability to pay bills and meet payroll while waiting for incoming revenue. "As commissioners we're always on a push to keep the budget as low as possible," he says. "Over the years there have been times when we've pushed it [the undesignated fund balance] too low and we've been chastised for it. So we've been building it back to a healthy level." He adds that they won't be able to put in that kind of an offset the following year.
In addition to the use of undesignated funds, the commissioners are proposing to stagger the three deputy hires in 2019: one for January, one for April and one for June. Because the fiscal year ends in June, the hiring dates will have less of an impact by being structured in this manner. The cost of equipment will still be a heavy load for the budget but will not be in subsequent years, Gardner points out. The commissioners have also put together some recommendations on how much to put away for building maintenance funds.
"We were willing to come up with recommendations, but the decision on those recommendations is theirs," Gardner explains of the budget committee's role. He point out that the use of the undesignated fund balance and the possibility of getting the total budget increase to the 2% mark "is good news but not definitive news." He adds, "It's really for the budget committee to make recommendations to the commissioners, not the other way around."
County budget committee Chair Lewis Pinkham says that he's looking forward to receiving the recommendations for discussion at the Tuesday, November 27, budget committee meeting. The county commissioners are expected to review and vote on the revised budget recommendation at their regularly scheduled meeting on Thursday, December 13.