County to boost road fund revenue

Garland County plans to direct 3% of the proceeds from the 0.5% countywide sales tax to the road fund in 2020, County Judge Darryl Mahoney told justices of the peace earlier this week.

Eighty percent of the proceeds go to the general fund and 20% to the solid waste fund. The new distribution formula Mahoney intends to affect through a county court order would reduce solid waste’s share by 3%, leaving 83% for the general fund.

The county projects the sales tax will raise close to $7 million next year, but close to $9 million in collections have been reported in recent years.

The additional 3% would become part of the annual general fund transfer to the road fund, giving the road department a projected

$251,823 in additional 2020 revenue. Proceeds from the 1.2 mills the county levies for its general fund have been transferred to the road fund since the Garland County Quorum Court converted the road millage the county had levied to a general fund millage in 2014.

The shift has deprived the city of Hot Springs of about $350,000 in annual property tax proceeds, as the state’s taxation code requires cities and counties to split proceeds from road millages levied in incorporated areas. County officials said the reallocation was needed to preempt the effect of potential legislation giving cities all of the proceeds from road millages levied on properties inside incorporated areas, but no such law has been enacted.

The county tax collector’s office billed more than $2.3 million on behalf of the general fund’s

1.2 mills in the 2018 tax year.

Mahoney told JPs earlier this week that lowering the solid waste fund’s projected annual revenue by about $250,000 should not affect it. Even with the reduction, the 2020 solid waste budget JPs gave a preliminary do-pass recommendation to Wednesday is less than the fund’s projected $9.1 million in recurring revenue. The $9 million budget advanced Wednesday is

64% of the solid waste’s fund’s $12.8 million in projected 2020 revenue, which included a projected $5 million beginning balance.

Counties are prohibited from appropriating a fund beyond 90% of its projected annual revenue.

Mahoney said the extra revenue for the road fund will pave more miles of county roads. The

$716,846 in capital outlays JPs advanced for the fund’s 2020 budget included a paver and tack truck Mahoney said will expand the road department’s asphalt program, allowing it to take on paving projects it would typically outsource.

The $6.4 million budget JPs advanced for the road department accounted for 76% of its $7.6 million in projected revenue.