By ROD ZOOK
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Reno County commissioners were in consensus to consider a budget that County Administrator Randy Partington brought before them, but work on making cuts to get to a revenue-neutral figure before officially adopting the budget later this summer.
Partington presented two budgets during Tuesday's agenda session. One was the proposed budget that kept the mill levy at the same rate as last year, but took advantage of a 5.7% increase in valuations. The second absorbed those valuations and dropped the mill levy by a fraction over two mills to a revenue-neutral figure. If the county were to adopt the proposed budget, it would have to give notice of the increase to taxpayers and hold a public hearing and a hearing to exceed the revenue-neutral rate. It’s a target that may be hard to hit.
“I don’t think we’re going to get to revenue-neutral,” Commissioner Ron Sellers said. “But I think we can get some place in between.”
The proposed budget totals $81,727,106 on levied taxes of $26,674,189 for a mill levy of 39.475. The revenue-neutral budget that the commission may try to shoot for is $80,392,664.
In order to get there, Partington outlined where $1.3 million worth of cuts could be made. Those cuts include dropping the cash fund carryover by $500,000 — leaving the county at 22% reserve funds to run the county for just under three months; defer all vehicle purchases out of the special equipment fund, saving about $300,000 not counting additional maintenance costs that could come with such action; reducing outside agency funds and removing $200,000 out of the courthouse capital improvement repair fund. The county could also cut the special equipment fund budget in half, saving $167,000. But all of that makes things more complicated for future budgets, something Commissioner Ron Hirst was against.
“I don’t want to be careful not to kick the can down the road to where two years from now when a new commission is involved that they have some super hard things to decide,” Hirst said.
There were several opinions on how to make cuts with Commissioner Sellers asking that the county look further into expenditures from outside agencies, noting that they still would not be able to hit the revenue-neutral rate. Commissioner Friesen has been stressing his desire to have a revenue-neutral budget for the year.
The commission will not meet July 12, but will return July 19 and hope to have any proposed cuts discussed at that time.
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