Minutes - 19760120 - Laserfiche WebLink

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L`-- EXPENDITURES Expenditures, with a few~exceptions~are also very c3.ase to budget estimate: Legal services have put the County Coauai.ssioners percen'_~•V high; tax bills and ..- abstracts always put the postage high in the first half o% ~._.~ year; and the selection of twice as many jurors as usual puts the couxY..s account over. The ~. Recreation expenses are high due tc the Manpower Grant that is shown as an ex- - pendituxe, but the revenue item ($10,000) is available for appropriata.on to_ that department. On the low side, Elections anticipates a county-wide pres- idential primary, the Sheriff has still not filled his deputy slots; the $8,000 fee for state detention has not been expended in the Jail account, and the ~. Sanitation department savings came from using Manpower personnel, and not yet purchasing garage tools and equipment. ~. _.~. _ __ ___ The total under endituxe in ersonnel dur' the six mar~ths has~been ._....-.. about $43,000 mostly in the Sheriff's department, in Sanitation, and in Tax Supervisor, this last where Manpower has also been utilized.: The area where expenditures have been the furthest below estimates is in the Social Services direct payments, particularly daycare, boarding home, and AA, AFDC, and Medicaid. These under expenditures provide a proportionately smaller amount of unused funds since about 75$ of these are state. and federal grants; and decreased expenditures result in decreased revenues. _ PROJECTIONS At the present, there is approximately $320,000 un--appropriated fund balance. X would also anticipate a net addition of $100,000 in revenue over estimates coming primarily from the various property tax related sources and .- about the same in undez expenditures particularly from personnel vacancies and reduced Social Service payments. This total would provide about $500,Op0 fund balance at year end assuming there are no major changes. Since $100,000 - of the fund balance will be Pram Revenue Sharing, an accrual and not cash, it really leaves about-$400,000 for purposes of cash flow at year end. In _197.5_; approximately $900,000 was required. $A00,400 from county fund balance, $300,000 reserve for the Cultural Arts Building, and whatever remains in the county's building and Seven Mile Creek accounts (I have.not included these in the other figures) should put the county very close to solving its immediate cash flow problem. Moving on then to the question of do we.have additional funds far activities in the current fiscal year: the answer depends on the philosophy' the board chooses to follow with regard to the fund balance. If you choose the path of reducing the un-appropriated fund balance, then cex.tainly .there are funds ar.3ilable. I would not recommend this course for the four reasons • mentioned earlier: 1) we may f~-_id ourselves with additicnal "true" emergencies that cannot be met; 2) The cash flow problem. might require us tc borrow funds; 3) A consistent tax rate po]a.cy would be difficult to maintain (the same .problem we have faced with the fine district tax and fund balances, only on a larger scale); and, 4) The national bond markets` response to declining fund balances .is negative and would cause increased interest rates for new bond issues. Obviously, these factors have varying levels of significance as we dig deeper into the pot. I am of. the opinion, however, that if we are to follow a policy of a fund balance of sufficient r