County budget

Benton County’s justices of the peace will have their first Budget Committee for the 2018 budget at 6 p.m. Oct. 3 in the Quorum Courtroom in the County Administration Building, 215 E. Central Ave. in Bentonville. equipment we’ll be spending the same amount of money.”

J.D. Hayes, justice of the peace for District 3, said the county needs to consider maintenance costs on the new equipment as part of the overall cost. Dennison said the state has agreed to pay for maintenance contracts on any new equipment the county buys now but has made no pledge that money will be available in the future. She said the maintenance agreements cost $125 annually for each of the machines. Dennison said the county needs 475 of the new voting machines.

“Over 10 years, that’s $600,000 in savings,” Hayes said.

Joel Edwards, justice of the peace for District 15, said the county should move ahead on buying all of the needed equipment and not delay while waiting to see if the state will pay part of the cost.

“There may be a temptation to buy a certain percentage now and wait to see what happens,” Edwards said. “I think there’s no way the state is going to give up that money. I think they see this as a county issue. It would be a mistake on our part to assume or even hope that next year there’s going to be state money available.”

Pat Adams, justice of the peace for District 6, said he favors buying all the needed equipment but paying for it out of county reserve.

“Benton County has been very fortunate to be a debtfree county for a number of years,” Adams said. “I think we should stay that way. I’m really for writing the check and be done with it.”