Justices approve county’s budget of $4.8 million

Group votes to move part of interest from hospital CD into county general

The St. Francis County Quorum Court this week approved the budget for next year.

During the meeting, justices also established new guidelines for use of interest generated by a certificate of deposit regarding the hospital sale and passed a resolution supporting a solar project.

SFCQC Justice and Budget Committee Chairman Charles Jones shared information with justices from a recent budget committee meeting.

"We had two or three items on our agenda, with the first item being to review the budget for 2024,” said Jones. “After discussing this, we voted to recommend the budget to the full Court. The other item was some extra revenue involving some funds that we have in Armor Bank. The judge wants to move a little bit of it over and put it in a different spot in case of emergencies. We also voted in favor of recommending you all pass this as well."

SFC Judge Craig Jones explained the county will be approximately $46,000 in the black in next year’s projected budget.

"The budget committee is sponsoring the ordinance for the 2024 Budget," said Jones. "We waited a little bit longer to do the budget this year and I appreciate you all being patient with me. Our carryover this year should be around $350,000. We are expecting $4,765,865.78 in expenditures and we will be taking in $4,812,593 which puts us around $46,000 in the black so we should be good there. We had a few unexpected expenditures this year that we won't have next year."

All justices voted in favor of accepting and adopting the budget.

During discussion regarding an ordinance to establish new guidelines for the hospital interest money, Jones explained that a lot of interest money is being generated right now and that it would be beneficial to the county to put any money above $200,000 in interest into a special account to save for a "rainy day."

"Are we going to get the same interest here that we currently receive through the hospital?” asked Justice Jimmy Long.

"Right now, the hospital interest, we have $7 million on a CD right now and it is drawing $31,000 per month," said Jones. "The way it is set up right now, all the money is going back to pay a debt of $750,000 that was borrowed for a lawsuit involving the jail. What this will do, is take the first $200,000 and put it back to pay off the debt while anything over $200,000 will go into a county general trust that will essentially serve as a savings account for county general. We are making a lot of money right now and I would like to see that money go back into an account for a rainy day."

"Why has it got to be done today?” asked Long. "If we get in too tight can't we do it then? I feel like we are just rushing into something that we don't have to get into."

According to Jones, the group will have to revisit the ordinance around the same time next year to discuss the interest rates once again.