Commissioners making county budget work

Bourbon County commissioners sat down and discussed several ways to cut expenses from the upcoming fiscal year's budget and keep the mill levy down during a recent workshop.

Commissioners Allen Warren and Chairman Harold Coleman, minus commissioner Jingles Edincott, who is on vacation until next week, along with County Clerk Joanne Long and accountant Terry Sercer, of Diehl, Banwart, Bolton CPAs, spent more than an hour Monday afternoon discussing where the board could make adjustments to reduce the budget. All department budget requests were submitted to the county last week.

County officials met with some of the department heads to discuss where to make possible cuts without affecting their operations.

"We know what you're asking for but what can you live without?" Coleman asked.

The revised budget after the workshop shows about a $10.3 million budget, which is slightly higher than last year's $9.6 million budget, but with a decrease in the local mill levy.

"We're spending more, but we levied less," Long said.

County officials slashed approximately $160,894 from the preliminary budget by reducing the amount some county departments requested during the work session.

The Bourbon County Sheriff's Department originally put in a request for around $558,000 -- about $125,00 more than the previous year. But after working with Sheriff Ron Gray, the department's request was reduced to $518,355 for the coming year.

The projected budget shows about $3.68 million in the county's general fund, with about a third of that earmarked for the road, bridge and culvert funds.

"I think it looks great," Long said of the budget on Wednesday. "It includes a cost of living adjustment for all employees and funding for the essential things we have ... (the budget is) looking pretty good actually."

The coming year's proposed budget includes a 2 percent raise for all county employees and an additional 5 percent raise to recoup the salary reduction department heads agreed to last fiscal year.

About 20 percent of the budget includes $2.4 million in employee benefits and salary increases, which also factors in health insurance and retirement benefits. County employees haven't had a raise since January 2009, Long said.

"... You've got to try and look out for your people because we're not only making the budget, we're going to have to pay these taxes, too, before it's over," she said. "People only have a finite amount of money, so you can't tax them to death.

"It's a balancing act and it's difficult sometimes," Long added.

The county has had to steadily raise the local mill levy the last couple of years because the county's assessed valuation continued to drop. Commissioners raised the tax rate by slightly more than 3 mills last year.

Long said she was nervous prior to working on the budget about what the tax rate would look like this year, afraid trends wouldn't help and values wouldn't go up. "But I was pleasantly surprised to see the value was up and we also didn't spend as much as we thought we were going to, so we had some carryover."

The county's assessed valuation, or worth, went up by nearly $2 million this year, which in turn creates more revenue.

Sercer said in a recent email to county officials that he thinks the budget "looks pretty solid right now."

All the county department heads -- about 12 people -- start working on the county's budget in the spring.

Warren said one of his main concerns about the county's finances was how to reduce cost for tax payers and "still get the job done.

"I think that's the big one," Warren said.

Long said she considers all the county's responsibilities and whether it can meet them.

"What kind of services are we able to provide and are we able to provide all the services that we've been (providing) in the past and are there any more that we can do," she said. "There are all sorts of people that depend on the county for money to run themselves and we need to make sure we can fund everybody."

The county's budget must be published 10 days before a scheduled public hearing, which has yet to be set. The budget will be finalized and approved before Aug. 25, Long said.