Officials focus budget priorities line-by-line

Department heads and commissioners spent two grueling days dissecting the books as they worked to cut the fat on an already lean county budget.

Each department met with the commissioners along with financial officer Jessica Connolly and administrative assistant Charlee Thompson. Together they went line-by-line to find ways to save money and search for ways to increase revenue.

Commissioners Laurie Johnston and Roman Zylawy said they felt the process went better than expected. The department managers brought ideas to the table on how to cut their budgets and overall the process went well.

Preliminary budget projections for this year show a deficient of roughly $350,000. Overall revenue for the county total around $1 million with expenses estimated at $1.5 million. Though there’s some money in the budget to offset the shortfall, the county is still faced with a budget in the red.

The goal at this point is to just balance the budget and stop the county from slipping further into debt said Zylawy. In time, officials hope to build the reserve fund back up. Connolly said that it should be at thirty-three percent of the of the county’s appropriation fund.

The commissioners feel good about the direction they are heading.

“We’re getting to where we want to be,” said Zylawy.

In the past, there have been some errors with the books. Resulting in delinquent accounts payable, along with penalties and fees.

For example, last fall several districts had received overpayments in fiscal years 2014 and 2015 totaling around $215,000. As a result, commissioners had to ask those districts to repay the funds. However, some of the districts had already used the funds and needed to set up a repayment plan with the county.

The West End Fire District and the Mineral Community Hospital asked for three and four years as a payback period. The hospital had a repayment of $79,655. Leaving the county short on its current budget.

This was the reason they hired Jessica Connolly part-time in December. Connolly, who is a CPA, has helped to get the books straightened out. Prior to hiring Connolly, accounting problems weren’t found until the annual audit.

“Now we can get ahead of the game and fix problems before the audit,” Johnston had said at the time of Connolly’s employment.

During the final budget meeting, Zylawy read a note they had received from Strom and Associates, PC, Certified Public Accountants. They recently did the audit for Mineral County and stated in a letter that “the financial department and staff should be commended for a job well done”.

This sentiment was echoed by the commissioners toward Connolly and Thompson. Thompson works part-time in several capacities for the county. Including working as the secretary for Human Resources, handling insurance claims, working with Title III funds and the safety program.

The next step will be more budget work sessions on August 21 and 26. With the budget projected to be finalized by September 2.