A surplus county budget

The Fayette County Board voted to open for public viewing a proposed budget that has a small surplus in the general fund at the end of the next fiscal year.
That surplus is being made possible because of a decision involving past loans to the general fund from the capital improvements fund.
Cat Lange of Bellwether, an operations consultant hired by the county board in July, told board members on Tuesday that in past year’s, the county has “tried to run a tightly-balanced budget” or one with a substantial deficit.
What that was doing, Lange said, was “eating away at any reserve that we have and creating a lot of financial tension.”
The “big change” with this new budget draft, the first created by Bellwether, “is to assume we can’t pay back the full amount that was borrowed (from the capital improvements fund),” Lange said.
“Otherwise, we will put ourselves immediately into another interfund borrowing situation at the beginning of next year,” she said.
Speaking for the board’s finance committee, Chairman Jeff Beckman said, “We just felt like we were fooling ourselves” by continuing to make the interfund loans.
The capital improvement fund was established after the county sold its coal rights for $5.5 million in 2007. That fund is now around the $2-million mark, because of loans to the general fund and loans that the Fayette County Health Department is currently repaying.
Lange told board members the drafted budget has the general fund ending the next fiscal year with an excess of $15,000.
The new budget does include $75,000 for outside legal counsel. After a closed session at the end of Tuesday’s meeting, the board approved paying up to that amount for legal assistance during union negotiations.
Board member Wade Wilhour asked about another employee for the treasurer’s office being included in the new budget.
County Treasurer Rose Hoover said that she has hired a part-time employee for the period of July 26-Nov. 30, and that she has “put somebody else in there (the budget) in case I need it.”
Hoover, who has just one full-time employee in her office, said, “Every other department has more employees than I do.
“I work late and I take and do work things after hours.
“I’ve been really trying to help the county out and I’ve been trying to pick up the slack,” Hoover said, explaining that she did not replace an employee who left last October and one who left in 2012.
“I’ve worked hard to save the county money.”
Wilhour said he wasn’t attacking Hoover, and several board members said they appreciated her efforts.
She also told board members that Bellwether has drafted a new tax levy for the next fiscal year, one that that an increase of 2.96 percent over the total revenue amount for the previous year.
Beckman said that the board tried to keep the levy low after receiving the money for the coal rights, and that is has tried to keep them as low as possible.
“The day of reckoning is here – it’s starting to catch up with us,” Beckman said.
Board member Jake Harris said that he “hates going back to the same people every time,” referring to increases in property taxes.
Harris asked about the possibility of a county sales tax instead of increasing property taxes, and board member Bryce Kistler said that money generated by such an increase would not go into the general fund and also that it would have to be put on the ballot.
Beckman said that the county has tried to keep property taxes down since receiving the coal money.
Wilhour said that property taxes have been “going up every year since I’ve been on the board,” but, Beckman said, “But not enough to meet our needs.”
Vice Chairman Darrell Schaal added that the county’s assessed valuation is one of the factors in determining property taxes.
Also at the meeting, the board approved an ordinance for prevailing wage rates in the county one month after such an ordinance vote ended in a tie.
While the board approved the ordinance, some members still cast dissenting votes – Wilhour, Kistler, Schaal and Glenn Gurtner.
Prior to the vote, board member Jenny Waggoner told other board members, “We’re not a right-to-work state – this has to pass.”
Beckman said that his problem with the issue is that the county board has to vote even though it’s mandated by the state.
“I truly, truly don’t understand why (the county board has to vote) – it’s a law,” Beckman said.
Asked by Beckman what would happen if the ordinance was not approved, Fayette County State’s Attorney Joshua Morrison said that the county would be given a hefty fine.
Harris clarified that the board is not voting on the prevailing wage rates themselves, but whether the rates set by the state are paid in this county.
Glen “Whitey” Daniels said he wants to postpone the vote again. “I think it ought to be a full board (present),” Daniels said. Board members Chad Austin and Mark Isaiah were not present for Tuesday’s meeting.
On Daniels’ request, Beckman said that there was already a motion and a second on the table for a vote.
Also on Tuesday, Sheriff Chris Smith told the board that his department’s temporary project of interstate patrols has ended, and that the deputy has been working that project will go back on regular duty on Oct. 18.
The main reason for terminating the patrols, Smith said, is because of the department’s workload.
“Bascially, there is no way to keep up on calls,” he said.
“The call (incident) volume is through the roof right now. Our incident numbers are phenomenal,” Smith said.
In September, the sheriff’s office handled 1,211 incidents, according to Smith’s montly report.
“The drug problem is so out of control that I don’t know what we can do,” he said. “There’s no fear of us, no fear of jail, no fear of a sentence.”
Having run interstate highway patrols since June, Smith said, “will give us some numbers to look at and what things are, and you guys decide if you want to do anything with that.”
In other action on Tuesday:
• Kendra Craig, the county’s Emergency Management Agency coordinator, reported that EMA had received a $9,422.97 grant from the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, and that those funds would be used to update the emergency operations center in the basement of the jail.
She also reported that the county EMA had received a $20,000 Dakota Pipeline grant, and that those funds would used to update equipment.
• The board approved the reappointment of Robert Buzzard as a Diveley Levee and Drainage District commissioner for a three-year term that ends in August 2020.
• The board approved the renewal of a termite service plan with Terminex, the cost being $169.