Budget amend set for public hearing

The Board of County Commissioners Monday, Oct. 3, voted to schedule a hearing date for the proposed budget amendment #2 to the 2016 operating budget for Monday, Oct. 17, at 10:15 a.m.

The total proposed amount of the amended budget is listed at approximately $63,000, though the commissioners said they are not sure what department or departments are requesting the amendment at this time.

“We don’t know until we get the amendment,” said Commissioner Art Swannack.

The commissioners earlier this year passed budget amendment #1, which totaled $343,594 and was required to cover increased expenses in three departments and a previously missed line item. The increases in that amendment included adding $750 to the commissioner’s line item for clerk travel, $10,000 to the coroner’s budget as a result of an increased case load, $43,920 to the facilities management line item and the $289,250 expense line item in the general government fund that was part of Whitcom’s budget which was previously missed.

“For some reason, the expense side did not get put in,” Commissioner Dean Kinzer explained in August.

That amendment also included a decrease of $326 in the juvenile line item. The amendment was covered by a projected increase of $75,000 in sales tax revenue, $71,000 from the operating reserve fund and approximately $199,000 in public works vehicle insurance revenue. It left the county’s operating reserve at about $24,000.

“Not much is left,” Swannack said Monday.

Concerns noted in passing the first amendment were the potential of a second one down the road and properly communicating with department heads that the operating reserve had largely been used.

“We’re utilizing our operating reserves in a pretty big chunk, so we’ll have to be very careful,” Commissioner Michael Largent said at the August hearing. “That’s the message I would like to communicate.”

The total county general fund budget, after the first amendment, is $15,398,577.

Copies of the proposed budget amendment #2 will be available starting Wednesday, Oct. 12, by calling 509-397-5240. The hearing will be Oct. 17 at 10:15 a.m. in the commissioner’s chambers in the Whitman County Courthouse and is open to the public.