Commission OKs 2005 county budget

By Ben Holman

Nevada Herald

In a special session on Friday, the Vernon County Commission approved the county budget for 2005.

A draft copy of the budget has been available since Jan. 18 for public review. Presiding Commissioner David Darnold said that while several county department heads and members of the press came to look over the budget, only a few private citizens did.

Those who attended the final hearing are the three commissioners -- Darnold, Bonnie McCord, and Neal Gerster, Sheriff Ron Peckman, County Recorder Doug Shupe, County Clerk Tammi Beach, Russ Warren and Arch Forkner.

In this year's budget, the commission approved four percent raises for most employees and the amount the county contributes for employee health insurance was raised from $225 monthly to $250 monthly.

The Vernon County 2005 estimated tax levy is purposed at $.0937; this is a decrease from the 2004 levy, which was set at $.1,281. The reason the commission purposed the decrease was because sales tax revenues for 2004 were much higher than in 2003 and are expected to continue at a higher rate.

"We've had quite a big increase in sales tax revenues, so that's what's driving that levy down," said Beach.

According to the assessor, the county's assessed valuation is expected to increase approximately four percent.

The Sheriff's Office received the federal Mosmart grant in the amount of $33,884 again this year and the newly formed Southwest major Drug Case Task Force has allocated $10,000 to assist with drug enforcement, bringing total revenues and expenditures to $43,884.

The county clerk also received a $15,000 grant through the Help America Vote Act in late 2004 and those funds will be used for election improvements.

Other grants received by the county include the Victim Advocacy federal grant received by the prosecutor's office, a $30,000 USDA grant approved for the county -- funds are expected in 2005 and a Homeland Security Grant of $30,920.

Commissioners said that one concern in the budget this year stemmed from the growing problem of prisoner housing. As the county jail overfills, inmates must be moved to other out-of-county facilities. In 2004, $37,000 was spent on that line item -- nearly $15,000 more than what was budgeted.

The budgeted amounts for prisoner housing and transportation were adjusted accordingly.

"If you watch the paper, that prisoner number just seems to keep going up," said Darnold, "when the jail goes over capacity, we have to send them elsewhere."

After a few questions from Forkner were cleared up, the budget was approved unanimously by the three commissioners.

Also present at the hearing was Beth Swopes, director of the Vernon County Health Department. Swopes was present to present the health department's 2005 budget at the meeting so that those concerned didn't have to make two trips to hear approvals.

According to Swopes, 42 percent of the health department's budget comes from a 10-cent county levy and 45 percent comes from state and federal contracts -- the remainder comes from smaller sources. No concerns were raised over the $510,752 budget, which was two percent higher than the 2004 budget.