County budget work wraps up

MINERAL COUNTY – Mineral County Commissioners heard from the last few departments about their budgets at their meeting Friday, Sept. 12 and were in the process of finalizing the paperwork which will be sent to the state for final approval.

After months of work, the commissioners were prepared to sign off on a few last minute adjustments including changes to the library budget among others. The process has involved tough choices as to where cuts needed to be made in order for the county to continue providing services the community has come to expect.

Because the county has relied in the past on federal assistance in the form of payment-in-lieu-of taxes or PILT money, the budget has, in the past, been drawn up assuming the federal money was a sure thing.

However, because Congress has not signed off on PILT this year and was, as of last week, still in recess, this year the budget was done with the idea the money may not come through. According to commissioners, it would be a financial blow if PILT isn’t approved this year, but the county is prepared for that.

Commissioner Roman Zylawy said the budget is currently only facing a little over a $100,000 shortfall as compared to two weeks ago when the figure was hovering over $300,000. He said, at least for the current fiscal year, they were certain the county was in solvent financial shape.

“With the cuts and a few departments finding revenue they forgot about, we are down to $100,000 in the red,” Zylawy said. “We are going to use funds from a rainy day settlement fund to balance things and keep our fingers crossed that PILT comes in and then we will replenish that rainy day fund with PILT.”

The rainy day fund cited by Zylawy merely refers to money held over by commissioners from last year’s budget in case of emergencies or need.

Zylawy said, while it was prudent to plan for not getting federal assistance because it is by no means guaranteed, if PILT comes through, the commissioners would use the money to pay for county employee benefits and/or hold onto the money for next year’s budget process.

“Last year we had to borrow for health insurance for county employees,” Zylawy said. “A lot of PILT went to pay for that. The rest of the PILT could be used to pay for the sheriff department, saved for budgeting next year or for paying health insurance premiums.”

Commissioner Duane Simons said one reason for the budget shortfall with the Mineral County Sheriff’s Office was because county residents do not pay for the service through a levy. He said most counties fund their law enforcement entities in that way but an effort to do that in Mineral County failed.

“The $100,000 for the sheriff’s department will come out of a general fund because we don’t have a public safety levy,” Simons said. “If we had a public safety levy it would really help and we will be working on that in the next few years. We can’t keep bleeding and bleeding and not replace it with something. It’s either that or services are going to become less and less.”