CARTHAGE, Mo. —
A 2 percent hike in county workers’ pay and increased county support to the assessor’s office are among changes in a proposed Jasper County budget for 2013.
The Jasper County commission will hold a public hearing on the spending plan when it meets at 9 a.m. Tuesday.
Richard Webster, county auditor, said he has received little reaction to the proposal from county officials or others since it was released on Dec. 28.
The budget estimates expenditures of $15.9 million in the general fund, which finances most county operations. General fund spending was $15.7 million last year.
Expenditures in the county highway budget are set at nearly $8.2 million, up about $100,000 from a year ago. Spending from the law enforcement sales tax fund, at nearly $3.5 million, will be up about $60,000 from last year.
After county workers went several years without a pay hike, commissioners and other officials met last fall and approved a 2 percent increase. The pay boost was to apply to all workers, but county office holders were advised to delay their increases until Jan. 1. Pay boosts for other workers took effect in September 2012. The increased cost was estimated by Webster to be approximately $260,000.
Webster said reductions in state funding to assessors’ offices prompted him to recommend an additional $140,000 in county funds for the operation. With the increase, county funding will total $300,000 in an expenditure budget of $967,000, compared with $929,000 a year ago.
Taxes on sales are the primary revenue source for both the general fund and highway fund. Webster said he is estimating general fund tax proceeds at $6 million and the highway fund at nearly $4 million.
He said he is projecting sales tax totals, including proceeds from the law enforcement sales tax trust fund, to drop slightly when compared with collections this year.
“We had some growth last year, probably due to activity after the Joplin tornado, but then it began to tail off at the end of the year,” he said.
Revenue available via the law enforcement sales tax will top $4.5 million, including a carry-over of nearly $600,000 from last year. Of that amount, more than $3.2 million will go to operations of the Sheriff’s Department, nearly $400,000 to a contingency fund and $225,000 toward a jail improvement project that is under way.
Webster noted the jail budget allocates $100,000 for potential costs to house prisoners outside Carthage. The county commission approved a $300,000 allocation last year, which remained unspent, in the wake of a dispute with former Sheriff Archie Dunn after he moved prisoners to other jails the year before.
Some money was left in the budget for prisoner housing at the request of Sheriff Randee Kaiser, who took office in January. He said the jail renovation project might make it necessary to move some prisoners for a time.
“They’ve told me they might get to a point in the project where that would help them finish more quickly,” Kaiser said.
The new sheriff noted his impact on the budget has been extremely limited so far, since the proposal was drafted in December and he took office in January. Spending projections also were submitted by Dunn before he left office, Webster said.
Newton County
The Newton County budget for 2013 is close to being completed, but is not quite there, said Presiding Commissioner Marilyn Ruestman. She said commissioners were working on the budget Wednesday, but it wasn’t close enough to being final to release any budget numbers yet.
Local News
Jasper County budget to be topic of public hearing on Tuesday
- Local News
-
-
Joplin sends team to help Moore
A team of public safety workers from Joplin were deployed Monday night to assist in Moore, Okla.
-
Two plead guilty to post-tornado wire theft
Two defendants pleaded guilty Monday to stealing copper wire from utility poles in the wake of the May 22, 2011, tornado that struck Joplin. Timothy M. Silveria, 45, of Joplin, and Nycoa K. Kracht, 32, of Laurel, Ind., entered open pleas of guilty in Jasper County Circuit Court to felony counts of theft from a public utility.
-
Vandals cause $37,000 in damage at Joplin business
A Joplin business owner was the victim of a weekend vandalism spree that resulted in an estimated $37,000 in damages and theft, in addition to putting the company out of service for at least two days.
-
Mike Pound: My wife hid the clutter so well, I may be missing
OK, now I’m worried. Late Sunday afternoon, my wife announced that she was going to clean up our kitchen and our family room. When she made that announcement, our 15-year-old daughter, Emma, and I laughed because, at the time, our kitchen and family room were sort of cluttered.
-
Joplin council meeting canceled due to storm forecast
Storm forecasts have caused the Joplin City Council to cancel its meeting tonight.
-
Carthage School Board meeting is postponed
The Carthage School Board meeting set for today has been postponed for due to threats of severe weather.
-
Storms cause damage throughout the Four States
Four-State Area residents hunkered down twice Monday to ride out tornadoes and powerful spring storms, then went to work cleaning up. The worst damage from Monday night’s storm was being reported in Ottawa County, Okla., near Wyandotte. That followed a report of an EF-1 tornado early Monday morning near Carthage.
-
Alan Marble, Crowder College president, to retire
After 27 years with Crowder College, President Alan Marble has announced his plans to retire on June 30, the formal end of the academic year. “It’s just the right time,” Marble, 58, said in a telephone interview Monday morning. “I’ve enjoyed, I think, every minute of these 27 years, but it’s time to move on to the next challenge.”
-
EF1 tornado hit Carthage early Monday morning
Clean-up was underway in Carthage after winds estimated at 90 to 100 miles an hour damaged buildings and toppled trees and power lines in the Carthage area just after midnight early Monday.
-
Federal agency proposes adding two Missouri mussels to endangered species list
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will host a public meeting in Joplin Tuesday and another meeting later in the week in Southeast Missouri to provide details and answer questions about adding two freshwater mussels to the endangered species list.
- More Local News Headlines
-
Joplin sends team to help Moore
