Isabella County officials to discuss budgeting options in next fiscal year

Isabella County officials will meet Monday afternoon to address cuts to the county’s 2010 fiscal year budget and a deficit in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

David Ling, chairman of the county Board of Commissioners, said County Administrator Tim Dolehanty will have a number of different options on hand for the board to examine. He said officials will give “priority to things we feel are necessary.”

The goal for a set budget is March 31, although Ling said it isn’t a priority because the right decisions need to be made.

“I’m hopeful, but it’s not critical we meet that deadline,” he said.  “We have to have a budget set by September, but we have to have some direction at the end of March.”

The board decided Tuesday to stop making monthly payments of $200,000 to its self insurance fund.

The state requires a minimum of $435,000 to be in this account at all times. Currently, the county has approximately $1.7 million. The payments will stop being made starting this month and continuing through June.

Last month, Dolehanty reported the county would fall short nearly $2 million for its expenditures between January and July this year. He said the new figure has dropped to between $750,000 and $1 million.

Holding back the $800,000 from the self insurance fund, Dolehanty said, should be a temporary fix.

“That could be the patch that we need for now,” he said. “If we stop putting $200,000 in this fund between now and July, we could theoretically hold enough to cover that gap.”

After this four month time period, the board can decide to either put money back into the self insurance fund or it can continue to hold money back because the minimum requirements will still be met. The $1.7 million, which Dolehanty calls “a healthy number” in the fund presently will go untouched until that time.

The county originally didn’t have enough to cover expenses from January to July, Dolehanty said, because it has no large-scale solid revenue stream coming in.

“There is a big gap between when we collect tax revenues and the current expenditures that we are making,” he said.

Ling attested to the subject, calling it a complicated issue.

The county has been experiencing financial woes due to decreases in revenue from the state, traffic violations, and inspection fees.