County still struggling with finances

“It’s the same old song and dance,” Fayette County Board Chairman Steve Knebel said at Tuesday’s board meeting while talking about the county’s financial picture.
The failure of the state to keep up with the payments owed to the county, Knebel said, continues to cause major problems.
“You know that $355,000 that we set aside in the budget – we’re already into it,” Knebel said.
In approving its budget for the current fiscal year last November, the board approved the transfer of $355,000 in capital improvement funds, money generated from the sale of the county’s coal rights, to the general fund in order to create a balanced budget.
The transfer was made to help cover payroll expenses should the state continue to be behind on its payments to the county.
That is exactly what’s happening, Knebel and County Treasurer Rose Hoover told the board on Tuesday.
Knebel and Hoover said that the state is six months behind on its reimbursements for the state’s attorney and public defender salaries, three months behind on the probation officer salary reimbursement and two months behind on sales tax monies.
Because of that, they told board members, the county had to use $150,000 of the capital improvement monies.
“That’s the decision we have to make – how far are we going to go” before taking action to cut county expenses, Knebel said.
“Say we use (all of) the money ($355,000) – we’re going to have to come back” and decide whether to use more of the capital improvement funds, he said.
“If we don’t, we’re going to have to make some (difficult) choices,” Knebel said. “It’s something that we are going to have to be thinking about.
“Right now, we’re doing what the state is doing – borrowing from the future,” he said.
Also at the meeting, the board agreed to continue providing $10,000 in life insurance coverage for all 90 county employees.
Board member Dean Bernhardt, as chairman of the board’s insurance and personnel committee, said the premium for the employees is increasing by two cents per $1,000. The new premium amount is $3,082.
“Next year, it’s another thing we can hopefully go over,” Bernhardt said, referring to points that will be considered as the county board attempts to get contracts with all three unions representing county employees running concurrently.
The new premium was approved 11-1, with Knebel, Bernhardt, Jean Finley, Joe Kelly, Troy Pattillo, John Blythe, Glen Gurtner, John Daniels Jr., Darrell Schaal, Glen “Whitey” Daniels and Jeff Beckman voting for it, and Wade Wilhour casting the lone dissenting vote. Loy Staff and Keith Cole were not present.
Wilhour explained his opinion on the issue prior to a vote on the new premium, saying that “some people may get the feeling I don’t support anything for the employees.”
He said that as a fairly new member of the county board, “the way that government conducts business is pretty foreign to me.”
Wilhour said that he is part of a private business that offers him a job that he enjoys, and “there is no better satisfaction that to be able to provide a job for someone else.”
He said that in his situation, the employees work together to try to “enhance the company.”
As to the premium increase, Wilhour said, “I know it isn’t very much, but tacking it on to the rest of it, it all adds up.
“I think people would enjoy having more money in their pockets than all of these benefits. I think there’s better things we can be providing,” Wilhour said.
In other action, the board agreed to amend its liquor ordinance.
Knebel said the board’s liquor committee agreed to consider updating the ordinance after an individual who may be requesting a license “brought up some concerns.”
“We saw that we were very outdated,” compared to the city of Vandalia and other area counties, Knebel said.
For example, the county’s annual fee for a Class A liquor license, which allows the sale of all types of alcoholic beverages, was $3,000.
“We were extremely high … extremely high … by three times,” Knebel said.
The change approved by the board lowers the annual fee to $1,000 a year, which Knebel said is in line with the fee charged by the city of Vandalia.
The amendment also makes building requirements less restrictive.
“We were very restrictive,” Knebel said, explaining that the ordinance previously required license holders to operate out of a building made of concrete or bricks.
“We need to move up to the 21st century,” he said, noting that previous amendments to the liquor ordinance were made in 1994 and 1988.
The county currently has only one license issued, to the Vandalia Lake Club (Shrine Club).
The liquor ordinance stipulates that the county will allow only one license per township, and Beckman asked why that restriction is in place.
“I think that it was just a starting point,” Knebel said, explaining that the county, like the city of Vandalia, can increase the number of available licenses if license applications are submitted.