By Susan Redden
sredden@joplinglobe.com
CARTHAGE, Mo. — Jasper County officials and department heads are being told to hold down spending for the remainder of this year and to prepare for no spending increases in the 2010 budget.
“I don’t see how there can be any increases, in any shape or form, next year,” Richard Webster, county auditor, told the County Commission in its general session Tuesday.
No money was included in the current year’s budget as raises for county workers. Asked after the meeting if he could recommend funding for a wage hike next year, the auditor said, “I just don’t see how we can.”
Webster and the commissioners for some time have been discussing plans for a lean budget next year, and the auditor on Tuesday said the county ended October with a balance of just over $579,000 in general fund reserves. A year ago, he said, reserves stood at about $969,000.
“My concern is that revenues and balances are down, and we have to get through the end of the year and have some money to balance next year’s budget,” he said.
The commissioners said they will join with Webster in sending a memo to officeholders outlining the budget situation and seeking meetings with them to discuss department budgets for 2010.
The Sheriff’s Department budgets will be included in that round of meetings, after no talks were scheduled as a result of an earlier request, said John Bartosh, presiding commissioner.
Webster, at the commission’s request, sent a letter to Sheriff Archie Dunn more than a week ago. He asked for a meeting to discuss whether an additional $300,000 in law enforcement expenses could be paid for with money from the law enforcement sales tax, to reduce the strain on the general fund. There is a larger balance in the law enforcement sales tax fund than in the county’s general fund.
Bartosh said Dunn was asked to get back to the commission and tell members when he would be available to meet.
“He never did, and we didn’t press it,” Bartosh said. “Nobody wants these meetings because they’re not going to like what we’re going to have to talk about.”
Webster on Tuesday told the commission that county revenues for the year are just over $11.5 million, compared with more than $11.7 million last year, with most of the decline the result of lower sales tax proceeds.
He said the county will have to allocate $250,000 in next year’s budget for election costs, and that costs also will go up for workers’ health insurance and retirement programs. The state has reduced the amount it will reimburse counties for assessment services, which will translate to a $115,000 loss in revenues, he added.
He said the county has set aside nearly $1 million, most from the sale of property several years ago. He said the money has been earmarked for future capital projects. “I don’t want to spend any of that without a plan to put it back,” he said.
Sheriff dispatch
In another budget issue, two committees of the Jasper County Emergency Services Board met Tuesday to discuss a request by Sheriff Archie Dunn to eliminate the charge — more than $100,000 annually — that the Sheriff’s Department pays for dispatching services. Dunn has long argued that county taxpayers already are paying, via a one-tenth-cent sales tax to fund the board’s operations. Rich Nordell, executive director, said a decision on the request would be up to the full board, which meets next Tuesday.
