By Susan Redden
sredden@joplinglobe.com
CARTHAGE, Mo. — For the second year in a row, the Jasper County Commission appears headed toward adoption of a budget that does not hold any pay boosts for most county workers.
Richard Webster, county auditor, said at a budget hearing Tuesday that he will not allocate money for salary increases in the 2010 budget. Preliminary budget estimates project that revenues in the general fund will fall $1.2 million short of spending, and Webster said county reserves may not be sufficient to balance the plan.
But again next year, the wage freeze may not apply to workers in the Sheriff’s Department. Sheriff Archie Dunn cited a multiyear pay plan in increasing his workers’ wages this year. His response was “no comment” when he was asked Tuesday if he plans to increase workers’ wages next year.
Sales tax
Voters in 2005 approved a quarter-cent sales tax for law enforcement that supplements county law enforcement budgets. Funding for salaries in the law enforcement sales tax budget is estimated at nearly $1.9 million next year, compared with about $1.5 million this year. Dunn plans to take back the emergency dispatching program now contracted to the Jasper County Emergency Services Board, and some of that funding increase is for new dispatchers, the sheriff said.
The sheriff said Tuesday that he still is considering whether to place his dispatchers at the 911 center or establish his own dispatch operation at the county detention center. Dunn said his plan budgets the full county contract for dispatching at $110,668, because he does not know how long it will take to get department dispatchers hired and trained.
The proposed budget currently does not allocate any funding for new dispatching equipment, but Dunn noted “there still is time to modify it, if I decide to.”
Some exceptions
Webster said he is allowing salary increases based on changes in state classifications for two workers in juvenile court and for one position in the health department.
Though most county workers got no raises this year, Webster told the commission that some officeholders did increase their workers’ pay by reducing spending elsewhere or because their departments had a revenue source separate from the general fund.
“Once the money is budgeted, they can spend it the way they want,” he said. “But other departments don’t have that luxury, so it makes it difficult.”
Webster said spending on behalf of county workers will be up next year, because the county will cover an 8 percent increase in health insurance costs and an increase of at least 9 percent in retirement costs. Those expenses, plus paying for the primary and general elections, account for a significant share of higher spending, he said.
The county also will allocate $100,000 to cover expenses in the assessor’s office, since the state cut its support for that operation by 33 percent.
As proposed Tuesday, the general fund budget estimates spending at $16.5 million, compared with $15.7 million for this year.
Search for cuts
Webster and the commission will be meeting in coming weeks to look for areas where expenditures can be trimmed. Webster said that if there is no other choice, he will recommend that the commission balance the general revenue budget by spending some of the nearly $1 million that has been set aside for emergencies.
“I don’t want to; we’re trying to hold on to that in case we encounter a major building problem,” he said.
Currently, beginning reserves are estimated at $750,000 for the general fund, $1.5 million in the law enforcement sales tax fund, and $3 million in the road and bridge fund.
The commission has asked the sheriff to cover, from the sales tax fund, an additional $300,000 in law enforcement expenses now paid for by general revenues. Thus far, the sheriff has agreed to pick up about $60,000 in additional spending, Webster said.
Final budgets must be adopted by Jan. 10.
Salary commission
Elected officials who compose the county’s salary commission voted Tuesday to award cost-of-living increases, based on similar increases given to general county workers, to county officeholders starting in 2011.
