After years of cuts, La Plata County commissioners Tuesday had the pleasure of approving a budget for 2015 that’s $7 million higher than in 2014.
“Ongoing revenues exceed ongoing expenditures in this budget,” said county Finance Director Diane Sorensen. “That’s much more sustainable. This was much easier than the fiscal plan for 2014.”
As usual, there were several changes from the draft budget proposed in October.
On the revenue side:
Revenue is up $255,000. The majority of the increase is a $200,000 grant for engineering work on County Road 517 (north of Ignacio). The grant was received and passed through by the Southern Ute Indian Tribe.
Other revenue changes include $45,000 for the Forest Restoration Grant Program, which passed through to the program and $23,000 from allocations of indirect costs for services provided by the county attorney’s office.
On the expenditure side:
The bulk of the increase in expenditures includes moving $5.57 million from the General Fund reserves into the Capital Improvement Plan Fund from the 2014 budget to the 2015 budget.
Total expenditures increased about $1.93 million from October’s proposal. About $1.07 million comes from an unusual occurrence.
“Every 10 or 11 years, we have to deal with this,” Sorensen said. The county, which pays biweekly, will incur an additional pay period in 2015. “The best way to explain this is to multiply the 14 days in a biweekly period times the 26 pay periods, which equals 364 days. Combine the extra day left over year after year, coupled with the extra day from Leap Year every four years, and you have one extra pay period every 11 years.”
Open enrollment by staff in the county’s medical benefits increased the cost of that line item by $200,000.
One-time and contingency expenditures increased to include $350,000 for the Vectra Bank remodel, moved from 2014 and $250,000 in case part of a fire’s expenses are charged back to the county, as happened with the Stateline Fire.
“A year later, we got hit with a bill we negotiated down to $100,000,” Commission Chairwoman Julie Westendorff said. “We wanted to be lined up beforehand and have it negotiated before the fire season.”
Expenditures also include increasing the Senior Services food budget by almost $43,000.
One question remains: What about the Red Cross? The Southwest Colorado Chapter of the Red Cross requested $7,000 from La Plata County but then was reorganized, eliminating the executive director’s position here and consolidating it with Red Cross of Western Colorado in Grand Junction.
“We’re not sure what the services from the Red Cross will look like, so we need to get a handle on what will happen here and be sure that La Plata County money will actually stay here,” Westendorff said. “We’ll take a look at it early next year.”
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