County adopts preliminary budget
Legislators critical of county?s $4.9 million savings fund
By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer
Blaine County Commissioners on Monday adopted a preliminary $20.76 million budget for the 2004-2005 fiscal year. Only a day later, they started getting criticism on their practice of stashing significant sums of money for future projects.
Almost as quickly as the budget was adopted, however, commission-ers began adjusting the financial blueprint downward. Following the hearing, commissioners pulled $200,000 out of a $500,000 line item for renovations to the Old County Courthouse and reduced another line item set aside for garbage handling and landfill facilities.
As per state law, the budget can only be reduced following prelimi-nary adoption, and the reductions are well within the county?s legal author-ity.
As it stands the budget is $20.57 million, and Blaine County Clerk Marsha Reimann said ?it?s a real possibility? that the budget could shrink even more.
Final budget approval is scheduled for Sept. 7.
But the county also fell under criticism this week for its long-standing practice of over-budgeting and under-spending, a method by which it accumulated an $8.1 million surplus fund in 2003 part of which it used to finance the new Courthouse Annex building.
?I can guarantee you there?s not another county in the state of Idaho that can afford to go build a brand new building out of cash,? said Sen-ate Minority Leader Clint Stennett, D-Ketchum.
Stennett and House Minority Leader Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum, said that kind of money should be returned to taxpayers in the form of tax relief. Major capital improvement projects like a new courthouse should be funded using voter-approved bonds, they said.
Following construction of the Courthouse Annex, the fund still contains about $4.9 million.
Blaine County Commissioner Sarah Michael said she and her col-leagues have set $2 million of the fund aside in a capital reserve this year for a new county jail.
Jaquet, however, said the commis-sion needs to communicate more clearly about its plans, particularly for construction of a new jail.
?The thing that alarms us is, there?s been no public dialogue about how this public safety building will be built,? she said.
The $4.9 million fund, which amounts to 25 percent of the county?s budget, is ?in excess,? Jaquet said. The state, by comparison, generally puts about 5 percent of its total budget in an emergency savings fund.
The $8.1 million showed up in the 2003 Blaine County audit, but it is difficult to track in the annual budg-ets. It appears to have accumulated by a process of over-budgeting and un-der-spending over a period of years.
?We always spend less than we think, which is good,? Michael said. ?Our revenues from grants and other sources have been very positive. That?s why we?ve been able to save money.?
Aside from capital expenses, the fund has practical uses. The county uses the money to help get through the lean time between budget adop-tion in September and the arrival of tax money in December.
?We know we?re in the black, and we may have to build a savings ac-count in order to build a new jail, which we?re starting this year,? Mi-chael said. ?We need to save the money and then look at the payment options.?
Reimann said the budget also includes $300,000 for construction and renovations of the basement and first floors of the Old County Court-house. The Blaine County Prosecutor will move into the basement, and the Blaine County Clerk will take over the entire first floor, Reimann said.
The budget also includes an addi-tional $600,000 to try and defend a high profile double murder case, which is scheduled for Feb. 1. There is an additional $350,000 earmarked for the county?s public defender pro-gram. The county?s emergency con-tingency account was boosted from $220,000 to $350,000. An extra $150,000 was budgeted for the Blaine County Prosecutor?s Office. A line item for jury meals and lodging was boosted from $1,500 to $5,000.
?We hope it?s enough,? Reimann said.
