County OKs $20m budget
The Board of Weston County Commissioners approved the fiscal year 2025 budget, totaling $20,181,988.48, on July 16 during its regular meeting. This represents a $593,874.65 increase over last year’s budget of $19,588.113.83.
According to Weston County Clerk Becky Hadlock, the biggest changes, in addition to the increase in total budget amount, was the assessed valuation, which was down $9,753,013 from last year’s.
The assessed valuation, according to the budget document, is $194,517,316. Cash carryover totaled $12,801,121.93 and estimated revenue for fiscal 2025 is $5,046,605.49, it notes.
This makes the estimated total for appropriations $17,847,727.42, in addition to the 12-mill tax levy requirement of $2,334,261.06. These two totals combine to account for the $20,181,988.48 to fund this year’s county budget.
Despite the decrease in valuation, Commission Chair Don Taylor said that leftover COVID-19 funds helped the budget this year. He noted, however, that most of the $2,351,176.79 budgeted in the American Rescue Plan Act line item is spoken for.
These funds are included in the breakdown of other county accounts in the budget with other grant funding. This area of the budget increased by $1,833,732.04 over last year’s amount to total $2,982,034.02.
The budgeted amount for additional 1% sales tax projects, on the other hand, decreased this year by $24,840 to total $262,744.20. These funds cover what are known as service providers and other expenses, ranging from local ambulance services to courthouse repairs.
Of these service providers, the largest line items are Campbell County Ambulance (Newcastle Ambulance Service) at $31,050, Upton Ambulance at $15,000, capital projects at $15,000, Mallo Camp at $40,434.20, courthouse security at $26,000 and GIS land records at $24,000.
New to the 1% sales tax projects this year are the Upton cardboard compactor at $2,500 and WYO Help at $6,000.
Also included in the “other” category of the budget are expenses such as advertising, insurance, workers’ compensation, software licensing and programming and other necessities. The budget breakdown of this section shows $2,956,724.37 in spending for these line items, down $229,120.45 from last year’s budget.
The largest line items in this section are employee health insurance totaling $975,478.68, retirement at $550,000, computer software licensing and programming at $300,000, and Social Security at $216,000.
According to Hadlock, the commissioners absorbed an 8% increase in health insurance costs, or $21,900.58.
“Some departments asked for raises for their employees, but the commissioners felt if all employees were not able to receive raises, those departments could not either,” she said in an email. “The commissioners did however pick up the increase for the insurance this year instead of the employees having to pay this which was in a way a raise for them.”
Taylor told the News Letter Journal that, while the county would like to give raises, it was just not able to this year. He said that the county is “towing the line” with the budget.
When it comes to the general fund requirements, Hadlock said she works hard to make sure all departments are treated fairly.
“The amounts where the department was over the year before in line items such as utilities, communications, etc., there will be more added as these are things the department cannot control,” she said. “However, there are cuts made in line items where there is a significant amount of extra funds being asked for. If a department went over in supplies or misc., this is a line item that they can control and a place that they can cut the next year.”
Hadlock noted that cuts were also made to line items when the department asked for a significant amount in the upcoming year and those funds were not spent in the previous year.
“There are some departments who will ask other departments if they have an item, rather than purchasing it, helping to save the county money,” she said. “There are other departments who spend every amount at the end of the year so that nothing is put back into the general fund.”
When it comes to the various departments, most stayed the same, according to the budget breakdown.
Increases were seen in two of the largest department line items, the sheriff’s department and the law enforcement complex. Totaling $663,874.80 this year, the sheriff’s department line item increased by $43,924. The law enforcement complex line item increased by $17,100 to total $575,288.08.
Other department line items saw decreases this year, including road and bridge. This year’s budget for county road and bridge totals $1,568,143.53, or $63,927.77 less than last year.
The line item for dispatch also decreased $45,580, to total $304,420.00.
Hadlock acknowledged that there was a difference in the published legal notice for the budget and budget hearing and the final approved budget. The reasoning, she said, was “the June bills were not paid, the actual valuation was not in, and the actual available funds were not accurate when this was published.”
The legal notice reported total requirements for the county as $18,532,029.24, or $1,649,959.24 less than the figure in the final approved budget.