Committee forwards county’s budget to full Court for vote

The St. Francis County Quorum Court Budget Committee on Thursday approved a motion to take the proposed budget for the remainder of the year before the full Court. Justice Regan Hill addressed the committee to clarify the requested amount and the revenue that is expected to be brought in. "So the 2025 is $5,766,000 in County General. Where you see the $6.5 million in revenue, you have to back out the two or three things that are in there and that figure actually comes to $5,540,000," said Hill. "That is the actual number you are working with on the revenue for your expenditures of your 2025 budget. That is the actual money that is projected that we are going to have and the budget is requesting $5,766,000. Those are your true figures. That clarifies the money." SFC Judge Craig Jones said the first two months of the sales tax revenue that will come in will go to the SFC Jail Construction Fund. "We are going to get one month of sales tax money," said Jones. "The sales tax will go into effect in October but the way it runs, though, the jail will get two months of it with the way it rolls over. I don't know the exact figure, but I figure $100,000 a month. So, a couple hundred thousand will be for the jail. There is going to be some costs at the end of the bond. There is $172,000 in a jail fund and I have been assured that it shouldn't be much more than that, but a lot of people are up in the air about it for when it exactly pays off." Jones said the $172,000 that is in the account can be moved to the jail maintenance and upkeep fund to be used toward their budget. "I talked to the lawyer that did all of our work for our sales tax and I talked to the auditor," said Jones. "If money is coming in for the jail construction, the money could be applied to the next best thing, which is operation and maintenance of the jail. In the budget, $600,000 is in there for that. You could apply that to it also. You are looking at maybe an additional $300,000 coming in from that. It is $200,000 for the jail and we know that $133,000 is coming in from the sales tax. That makes up for a lot." According to Justice and committee Chairman Charles Jones, the budget should be cut by an even percentage across the board. "I don't know about the rest of you all, but I think we should approach this a little differently," said Justice Jones. "I have been on this board a long time, probably longer than anyone except for maybe Justice Hill. We need to look at this thing in a proactive way. We need to do something before it gets to the point of where it is right now. What I am thinking is, we need to decide how much over it is and have a reduction equivalent to whatever percentage that works out to be across the board. That works for me – every department across the board." "When the budget was turned in, some people did cut," said Judge Jones. "What are you going to do with people who did cut? Are you going to make them cut more?" "Well, if it turns out that we have some excess when this is done, they can come back and we can decide to equally distribute that excess to whoever needs it," said Justice Jones. Justice Ernestine Weaver told Justices that to cut by a percentage across the board would punish those who already cut their budgets and not those who didn't. "If we do that, we are punishing the people who tried to do what we asked them to do and rewarding the people who didn't pay attention to what we were saying," said Weaver. "That would be a disadvantage. If they have already did their just benevolence, we should not go back and punish them for doing right. We would be allowing people who didn't do what we asked them to do to be at an advantage." "I am talking more than I normally do, but let’s just call it what it is. Let's identify those areas where people are doing the things they shouldn't be doing and punish them," said Justice Jones. "I think when you look at the budget, it tells what percentage people went over," said Weaver. "Those are the things that we have to identify because, in my opinion, I don't want to punish those people who have done what they were asked to do." "The ones who have gone over their budget are the ones we need to focus on," agreed Justice Jones. "They need to figure out how to get that down." According to Hill, there are two or three offices that not only did not cut their budget but increased their requested amount. "I like to work off of the known, not off of the hope of the known," said Hill. "We may get this $300,000 but we may not. We don't know. I am trying to work today off of what we know. We know that we have a $200,000 difference between what the anticipated revenue is and what the 2025 budget is. That is the known. However the court decides they want to handle that, that is the known. I agree with Mrs. Weaver. The Judge did ask every department to cut 10%. From my understanding, as I wasn't on the Court then, there were some departments that did cut theirs 10%. I believe there were some who did not cut theirs 10%. "As a matter of fact, there are one or two or three that not only did not cut 10%, they went up," continued Hill. "The most logical thing there is to deal with those that went up first, then go from there." Hill said the only two options to deal with the budget include the cut across the board and to pass the budget in its current state and not allowing offices to get more money when they reach 100% of their allotted amount. "We have two options in my looking at this," said Hill. "The first option is that we take a percentage of this that amounts to $200,000 and we, the Court, not anybody else, but this Court, cuts the 2025 budget by whatever that percentage is and that is what the offices have to work on and that is it. The second way is as you see the percentages there on the right, at the six-month mark, you should be at around the 50% mark of your expenditures. If you will notice, most of these expenditures are there. When they get to 100%, that is it. Be it August, September, October, November, that is it. It does not matter. They will have to come before the Court to decide anything as far as anything else. There is no money to go get unless we come up with a way to get that extra money." According to Hill, the Court can be updated monthly on where each office stands in their budget percentage to keep an eye on spending. "Is it better to go ahead and do the percentage cut now or is it better to deal with each department that goes over individually as we continue this year out?” asked Hill. "Which is going to be the easiest? Tammy (Talley) can tell me if I am right or wrong. When is the last time a head official has been in anyone’s office to see where they stood on their budget? Just to ask where they are on their spending? Tammy can provide us with these three pages monthly so we can see exactly where each department stands every month that we meet. Do we want to handle it monthly or do we want to make the cut?" Hill made a motion to pass the budget at 100% of its requested amount of $5,766,000 with the requirement that elected officials have to come before the budget committee if they go over their allotted amounts. The motion was unanimously passed by members of the committee and taken before the full Quorum Court Monday afternoon.

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