A proposed $18.3 million budget will come before the Baxter County Quorum Court when it meets in regular session Tuesday evening. The proposed ordinance reflects new sales tax funding for construction, as well as maintenance and operation, of the voter approved jail expansion.
In comparison, the 2018 budget was $15 million.
The budget breaks down into two sections, county general and restricted. As its name implies, the restricted portion of the budget of over $10.1 million must be used for specific purposes. Examples would be those dollars designated for road and bridge and jail expansion construction. The remaining portion of the proposed budget of $8.2 million is the part for which the court has leeway.
For the second year, the county has plugged reserve dollars into the general fund line item to balance its budget. The 2018 budget showed $1.7 million in reserve dollars from the sale of the county owned nursing home and the lease of the hospital.
County Treasurer Jenay Mize says only $92,000 of the reserve dollars have been spent so far this year. With the bulk of the dollars unspent, the 2019 proposed budget reflects $1.6 million in reserve dollars in the general fund line item.
Mize says in the past, the general fund line item contained the expense for jail maintenance and operation. This expense is now moved into its own line item, reflecting projected funding from the county-wide one-quarter cent sales and use tax to begin Jan. 1st for continued jail operation expenses.
However, she notes the first six months of the one-quarter cent sales tax is earmarked to complete the construction cost of the jail expansion.
Justice of the Peace Gary Smith, budget committee chairman, says other highlights of the proposed 2019 budget include an increase of about 3 percent for the county’s health insurance coverage and a 3 percent cost of living adjustment for employees. Elected officials are proposed to receive flat amounts in their salary increases.
In addition, Smith says the budget begins the process of adopting the outcomes of a wage study the quorum court authorized earlier and the impact of the passage of the voter approved new minimum wage law.
Other highlights include $79,500 in funding for three new patrol units for the sheriff’s department and $69,000 for the purchase of voting equipment.
The other members of the budget committee are Justices Tink Albright, Edna Fusco, Neal Pendergrass, and Lucille Soltysik.
Action on the 2019 county budget is one of six items on the Baxter County Quorum Court agenda Tuesday evening. The meeting is set for 6:00 in the second floor courtroom of the courthouse.
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