Despite the efforts by some elected officials and department heads in Jefferson County to make further cuts to their requested 2017 budgets, the Finance Committee of the Quorum Court will be called on to make further reductions.
During a meeting of the Quorum Court on Tuesday, members of the county’s legislative body were told that even with the proposed cuts, the 2017 requested budget was $419,092.23 over projected revenue for the year.
The County Treasurer’s Office has projected 2017 revenue at $9,619,534.57, and under Arkansas law, counties can only appropriate 90 percent of that, or $8,784,045.
Earlier this month, the Quorum Court was presented with a requested budget which would have been over 90 percent by almost $836,000, and elected officials and department heads were asked to go back and try to find a way to reduce that amount.
“I want to thank the department heads for trying to bring the budget in line with what expected revenue is going to be,” County Judge Henry “Hank” Wilkins IV said Tuesday night. “They did reduce it some but not enough.”
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
In December, the county’s legislative body extended the 2016 budget through the first 90 days of this year to allow five new members of the Quorum Court and Wilkins an opportunity to be involved in the process. That extension runs out March 31.
Dr. Herman Ginger, who, along with with Justice of the Peace Ted Harden, co-chairs the Finance Committee, said Wednesday that the committee will meet Friday and “will come up with a budget that meets the guidelines of the county and follows the laws of the state.”
He also said that based on current revenue projections, the county will “not have any more money this year than we did last year.”
At a February budget hearing, each elected official and department head was given an opportunity to present information about their offices and their needs for 2017.
Commenting on that process, one of the new JP’s, Jimmy Fisher, said he hoped that in those hearings, the elected officials and department heads included all the things they needed to operate this year.
“You didn’t leave any needs out there thinking about wants did you?” Fisher asked. “We want to make sure you get your needs.”
Harden said he had talked with a couple of elected officials and learned that one of them could be funded by the state rather than the county, and there is a possibility that other agencies could do the same thing.
“If that is the case, we can look at supplemental appropriations, but right now we’ve got to do something to get us through,” Harden said, adding that there is a possibility that additional revenue could be available later as the result of actions by the state legislature.
Describing that as “big if it happens,” Ginger said “we will do our dead level best to keep the county solvent.”
Asked by Sheriff Gerald Robinson if budgets for non-county general funds can be appropriated at the same level as requested, Harden said he did not see a problem as long as revenue projections for those funds exceed the requested expenditures.
Robinson was speaking directly about revenue streams the sheriff’s department, jails and district court receive, such as the quarter-cent for jail maintenance and operation, and the one cent Public Safety sales tax.
Wilkins also commented on the still-unfinished Sheriff’s Office located next to the adult jail and said he believed it was not a good use of tax payer money to have a building that is half completed, particularly since costs to complete the building will be higher now that in the past.
He said the county will look at the possibility of getting a loan to complete the building.
“If we all get on the same page, we will see the community excel,” Wilkins said.
Noting that the county has only about a week to settle on a 2017 budget, Justice of the Peace Dr. Conley Byrd said, “We can’t take anything off the table while things get put into place.”
Byrd also asked about the possibility of extending the 2016 budget further, and Ginger said, “We’re going to do everything we can not to kick that can further down the road.”