Sheriff $300,000 over budget

Nick Ianniello

Mineral Independent

The Mineral County Commissioners have been working overtime the past week to try to cut down the county’s general fund budget after learning that the county is several thousand dollars under budget for the coming fiscal year.

The Mineral County Sheriff’s Office, which was already in financial trouble, has to cut around $300,000 from its budget and the county has to cut nearly $200,000 from its general fund, according to Mineral County Commissioner Judy Stang.

Stang said that the sheriff’s office had already laid out their budget for the coming year when they found out that their tax revenue would be significantly less this year than in previous years.

Mineral County Sheriff Hugh Hopwood met with the commissioners in June to discuss budget shortfalls and suggested that his officers write more speeding tickets.

He said that he would not start setting up speed traps but, previously, he had instructed his officers to report anyone that was not going a ridiculously fast speed to the Montana Highway Patrol. He hoped that writing more tickets would bring in revenue that would help deal with his department’s deficit.

Despite this plan, Hopwood may have to face even greater cutbacks. According to Stang, the county is beginning the process of cutting corners wherever they can because the tax revenue coming into the county this year is significantly less than anticipated.

Stang said that, in all actuality, they will have about the same general fund budget this year as last year but, with rising gas prices and annual raises for employees, the county is coming up short.

Every department in the county from the Justice Department to the janitorial staff will have to cut back this year.

“With some of these departments, I don’t know what is going to happen,” Stang said.

Stang said the change in revenue has a lot to do with changes in property taxes. She said that one of the bigger problems is that the county used to bring in a good deal of tax revenue from power lines running through the county. When the state changed the property tax budget, taxes that the county collected on the power lines dropped 15 percent. The state changed the taxes because of protests from power companies, Stang explained.

Chief Justice of the Mineral County Justice Court Wanda James met with commissioners Wednesday to fight for raises for her courtroom clerks. Due to an inter-local agreement, the Mineral County Justice Courts have been picking up the cases from Superior and Alberton which has meant increased work for the court.

While the inter-local agreement does bring in more money to the county it is not enough to offset the budget shortfall and the commissioners were worried that the county would not be able to afford to give anyone a raise.

“I think they expected to get a little more money with taking on a little more responsibility,” James said.

James agreed to do whatever she could as far as cutting back her budget as long as her employees could still get the raises she felt they deserved.

“I’m willing to cut anywhere, but I think they need a little more,” James said.

The commissioners are still working to balance the county’s budget by cutting back expenses wherever they can afford.

“Everybody’s doing their part but it seems so little compared to the deficit,” said James.