Van Buren adopts $7.75 million budget

The Van Buren County Board of Supervisors approved a $7.75 million budget for fiscal year 2013, following a hearing Monday at the district courtroom.

Taxes levied on property will increase from $2,529,883 to $2,579,602.

According to county auditor Jon Finney, road use taxes and other intergovernmental transfers make up about half of all sources of revenue for the budget, with the rest coming from property taxes (36 percent), charges for services (4 percent), other county taxes (5 percent), use of money and property (2 percent) and other (2 percent).

On the expenditure side, 46 percent is spent on secondary roads, 14 percent on sheriff, 9 percent on mental health, 6 percent on the health board and the rest on supervisors, attorney, recorder, treasurer, auditor, conservation, courthouse and other.

?Those percentages haven?t changed much in the past 15 years,? said Finney.

Annual operating expenditures were $6,260,544 in fiscal year 2007 and are expected to be $7,118,611 in fiscal year 2013. The total county property taxes levied over the same periods were $1,975,056 in 2007 and $2,579,602 in 2013.

Finney compared Van Buren?s budget and tax asking with other counties of similar size.

Van Buren has a $2.19 rural tax levy, compared with an 11-county average of $3.15. The countywide levy is $8.13, while the 11-county average is $7.06. The amount of property tax levied last year of $2.5 million ?was the second lowest in the state.? The per capita rate is $341, compared with $468 in the 11-county average. The 2012 budget per capita rate is $987, compared with $1,179 in the 11-counties, Finney said.

Finney said the budgets of the seven elected county offices showed a 1.4 percent increase. The conservation budget, which was $448,237 in 2011-2012 is $260,811 in 2012-2013, he said. The decrease is due to FEMA projects being in the previous year?s budget and not in this year?s, Finney added.

Salaries went up about 2.5 percent in next year?s budget.

The secondary road department is planning a new wash bay to allow workers to wash trucks inside during the winter. Marvin Cox asked for a dollar amount; however, the supervisors said it will go out for bids so an amount could not be given.

Melvin Keller supported the decision to build the wash bay.

?Those trucks need to be washed,? he said.

Cox agreed with the wash bay, but ?I don?t agree to give it a blank check.?

The amount that goes to Area XV, Regional Utility Service Systems and Resource Conservation and Development will increase from $6,600 to $11,600 because of anticipated RUSS expenses. The amount given to the Villages of Van Buren will go up from $13,500 to $14,000. Otherwise the non-departmental budgets will be about the same. The amount of pass-thru grants, however, is expected to drop about $475,000.

Supervisor Ted Nixon opened the floor for public comment and questions.

Rick Plowman asked what the board thought would be the distribution of road use tax money if the gas tax goes up and if the county?s share would increase.

?Or is it going to go to I235 projects or things like that?? he asked.

Supervisor Marvin Philips thought it would continue to be the same formula.

?A few years ago, it was decided to get the cities up to a certain level, and once they reached it that it would drop back to the level before,? he said.

Plowman said he wanted a ?non-political? answer about the issue of county support for the Greef Store.

?Will there be changes?? he asked.

Supervisor Ted Nixon said, ?Ultimately, this board has no control on that.?

Nixon said the conservation board will be the ones to make the decision.

?But you do have control on the budget,? Plowman said.

?Yes we do,? Nixon said. ?I feel it?s an asset to the county.?

Philips said, ?I think all of us would privatize it, but no one has stepped up. We would like to see someone from Bentonsport step up and offer to run the Greef Store. We would also like to see a group like the Friends of Lacey started at Bentonsport to help.?

He said the Friends of Morris Park matching contribution for dust control was an example of partnerships that need to be established.

Nixon said, ?We need it all, tourism, agriculture, manufacturing.?

Fred Cailey mentioned the percentages of the schools, county, hospital and cities were about the same last year as in 2006-2007.

?It strikes me odd. It doesn?t sound to me as though you are working from a budget, but an allotment,? Cailey said.

Randy Besick said the county was ?budgeting on allowable growth instead of the status quo.?

He cited a decline in population and number of businesses. He said the supervisors needed to look at cutting services.

?Do we need the same amount of roads for a population of 7,000 that we had 100 years ago with 17,000?? he asked.

Besick asked the supervisors to commit to a ?dialogue to take this in consideration. Every penny is starting to count. The state reduced the clerks hours in the courthouse, why not consider that??

Philips said, ?We need to look at all ways to save money. Everybody wants more services. At some point, people need to figure out what they want to cut.?

Supervisor Mark Meek said he would be willing to commit to a dialogue.

Nixon said he always wants input from citizens.

The board approved and adopted the 2013 county budget as published and presented.

Maximum expenditures were set for the various service areas: public safety and legal services ? $1,131,583; health and social services ? $596,508; mental health ? $669,395; county environment and education ? $384,138; roads ?$3,245,000; government services ? $310,997; administration ? $607,690; nonprogram current ? $5,700; capital projects ? $167,600, for a total of $7,118,611, with $635,140 in transfer of funds.

Maximum departmental appropriations were set: supervisors ? $135,517; auditor ? $217,779; treasurer ? $222,963; attorney ? $109,653; sheriff ? $976,330; recorder ? $128,658; engineer ? $3,305,000; veterans affairs ? $42,434; conservation (01/02 funds ? $175,461, all other funds ? $85,350); health board ? $413,787; weed commissioner ? $350; human services ? $19,537; care facility ? $40,700; medical examiner? $17,500; district court ? $10,500; general services ? $94,720; mental health ? $673,145; juvenile PO ? $26,500; and non-departmental ? $422,727.