County approves balanced budget

The Fayette County Board had only two items on the agenda when it met in special session on Tuesday – passage of a new budget and tax levy for the new fiscal year. But it turned out to be one of its longest meetings in a long time.

The passage of a balanced $10.671-million budget came close to two hours after the board, and some employees of the county, discussed the current and future financial condition of the county.

A budget hearing prior to the special meeting was scheduled to last up to 30 minutes, but it ended up running more than 45 minutes.

During that hearing, board Chairman Steve Knebel explained – as he did at the board’s regular December meeting – that the proposed budget was balanced only because the board was taking $500,000 from its capital improvement fund, after taking $250,000 out of that fund twice in the past year in order to meet payroll.

That fund, which was established with monies received from the sale of the county’s coal rights, started out at about $5.5 million and stands at about $3.88 million going into the new fiscal year.

Knebel said the board wants to avoid spending down that fund, particularly on payroll. The withdrawals from that fund, he said, indicate how quickly that fund could drop to nothing.

“You know that after that (is spent) at that rate, where it goes – it goes away,” Knebel said.

“We’ve got money, but in three years, (if the withdrawals continue), we’re not going to have any money,” he said, speaking to department heads and employees in the audience.

“Work with us,” Knebel said. “We’re not asking for an arm and a leg. There’s got to be give and take.

“You think $5 million goes a long way – not when we’ve got an $11-million budget … and the state is not paying us. This cash reserve was not intended for employee salaries – it never was,” he said.

Those speaking from the audience consisted mainly of county employees who are members of the Fraternal Order of Police. At the December meeting, Knebel announced that those union members voted not to take furlough days.

Sheriff’s deputy Greg Kline and others said that Knebel’s comments at that meeting made them look bad, and that they want the board to understand that their reasoning was the staffing problems that would be caused by furlough days, particularly when they have standards that they have to meet while operating law enforcement and jail operations.

“Are we in a position to take those (furlough days)?” Kline asked, stating that when a dispatcher, for example, takes a furlough day, “There’s no people to move around.”

To that, Knebel said, “There has to be a scheduling adjustment. Furlough days can be worked out.

“Would six (furlough) days (per employee) help? Absolutely. Anything … anything would help,” he said.

The board chairman said that the board has strived to provide good jobs for its employees, specifically mentioning health insurance coverage.

“We’ve got as good a plan as you can get,” he said.

Asked if other county employees had been approached about taking furlough days, Knebel initially said that they had not. Asked why they hadn’t, Knebel said the board started with the FOP members because that union represents the largest group of employees.

Later in the meeting, Knebel did note that other county employees, those who are not in a union, were asked by their department heads whether they would accept furlough days, and they said they are willing to do so.

“We’re trying to keep the county running on a responsible budget. Responsible means not spending more than what we’ve got,” he said. “We feel like we’ve been good to county employees.

“You’ve gotten some nice raises in recent years, and we’ve treated everybody fair and equal,” Knebel said.

He said that the last budget projected a balance of $555, 543 in the general budget as of Tuesday. “We have $255,129.

“You (can) see how our cash balances are going down every year,” he said. “That’s just in our general fund.”

“We’re going to try to keep this county running as long as we can without laying people off,” he said.

“I think we’ve got a good budget, as long as everybody works hard … and the state comes through – that will be the big thing,” Knebel said, noting that the county wouldn’t be faced with hardships had the state been making its reimbursements as required by the state constitution.

“If we start receiving our monies on time, that will help tremendously. But I don’t see that happening – they don’t have the money to do that,” he said.

“My plea to the employees and unions is, don’t make us spend all of this money, because when it’s gone, it’s gone,” Knebel said.

“If we didn’t have that (capital improvement) money, last year we would have been $500,000 short … and there would have been a lot of people laid off,” he said.

When the county sold its coal rights, Knebel said, “Everybody chastised us for doing that – that is what’s keeping the county going.”

Jail Administrator J.D. Vieregge said that since it’s the state’s failure to meet its obligations, shouldn’t the county do whatever it can to get the monies it is owed.

Shouldn’t the county at least send letters asking the state to meet those obligations? “What could it hurt?” Vieregge asked.

Knebel agreed.

Board member Wade Wilhour said he couldn’t support the new budget. “I will have a hard time voting on this budget. I don’t feel it is pro-active enough.”

He suggested putting a cap on the amount the county could take from the capital improvement fund, but State’s Attorney Stephen Friedel said the board could later vote to exceed that cap. “I don’t think it (a cap) actually does anything.”

Board member Dean Bernhardt, a finance committee member, told Wilhour that he believes that committee fine-tuned the budget as much as possible, and was pro-active in that it set some strict limits.

In response to county employees challenging the need for furlough days, County Treasurer Rose Hoover said it’s been an extremely tough year for her.

Hoover said she has been asked to process county bills knowing that sometimes, the money for those bills is not in a specific fund.

“I’m at the end of my stick with paying bills,” said an emotional Hoover. “It has been a lot of stress.

“The county board has been good to us, and we’d better appreciate it,” she said.

“When that (capital improvement) money is gone, it’s gone.

“I’m willing to give, and I hope everybody else is willing to give. We’ve got to work together,” Hoover said.