County approves budget with shortfall

FAYETTEVILLE — The Washington County Quorum Court passed Monday a $68 million budget for next year that kept a $5 million shortfall between expected revenue and spending.

“The budget is still over what we are capable of funding — especially with dwindling reserves,” said Justice of the Peace Sue Madison, a Democrat representing southeastern Fayetteville.

The budget committee met Monday night, just before the Quorum Court, to address the 2018 budget in special-called meetings. The Quorum Court failed to pass a similar budget last Thursday.

Justices of the peace also kept the property tax rate the same. Justices of the peace previously had discussed raising the rate for revenue.

A budget must be approved by Dec. 31.

Under the budget approved Monday, the county general fund is expected to have $4.8 million in unappropriated reserves next year, Treasurer Bobby Hill said. That amount is down from about $6 million this year.

Unspent money is expected to help offset the shortfall.

About $12.8 million will roll over into next year’s budget, according to a budget summary released Monday. The money includes a fund that acts like savings for the county, money the state mandates be saved from revenue and unspent money in departments’ budgets.

Justices of the peace had to pass a budget, said Tom Lundstrum, a Republican who represents northwestern Washington County. The approved budget is as close as justices of the peace are able to get to balancing the budget on paper this year, he said.

But, justices of the peace also failed to pass several proposals to cut the budget further.

Justice of the Peace Eva Madison, a Democrat representing northeastern Fayetteville, proposed not paying justices of the peace to attend committees of which they are not members, implementing a hiring freeze countywide and making cuts to two line-items that historically have not spent as much as is in their budgets. The line-item cuts alone would have saved about $137,000.

“There’s a whole lot in this budget that should have been cut out,” Madison said.

Because further cuts failed, the Quorum Court was left with basically the same budget it failed to pass last week, said Justice of the Peace Sue Madison, a Democrat representing southeastern Fayetteville.

The biggest difference between the budgets is the discovery of a clerical error, said Ann Harbison, a Democrat representing southern Washington County. About 22 positions were categorized as new positions when actually they are existing positions with the ability to give pay raises based on ongoing training and certifications.

Finding that error saved the county about $800,000, said Justice of the Peace Daniel Balls, a Democrat representing northern Fayetteville. Otherwise, the actual cuts to the budget were small, he said.

The Circuit Clerk’s Office cut one of its two requested positions and reduced part-time help to save about $62,600. The Assessor’s Office saved the general fund $2,500 by opting not to buy a new vehicle.

The county is on the right track, said Justice of the Peace Bill Ussery, a Republican representing northeastern Springdale and budget committee chairman. Department heads will continue to find ways to save money and be more efficient, he said.

“We are doing our very, very best to make this (budget) as slim as we can make it,” Ussery said. “We’re going in the right direction.”