On Tuesday, the La Plata County commissioners had the happy – and of late unfamiliar – opportunity to approve a budget with more money than last year’s. In that much of the reason can be traced to increased property and sales tax revenue, it is a reflection of a generally improving local economy.
But it is also partly because the commissioners and other county officials managed the bad years prudently. They of course cut when and where they had to, which in itself is admirable. Unlike the federal government, counties do not get to print money. The cuts, however, were not panicked or rash, and no sacred cows were kept whole at the expense of needed services.
Nonetheless, there has been a noticeable decrease in county services in recent years, and increasing revenue can only be welcome to all concerned. October’s proposed budget showed an estimated 8.7 percent increase in property-tax revenue – mostly from higher natural-gas prices – and a 5.5 percent increase in sales-tax proceeds. Gas prices react to national and even global forces, but the sales-tax revenue suggests a generally improving local economy. All told, the county budget for 2015 is $7 million larger than the one for 2014. Since the October draft budget, a few things have changed. Revenue in the adopted budget is up $255,000. Most of that reflects a $200,000 grant received by the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and passed on to the county for road work near Ignacio.
Expenditures rose, too. Part of that reflects open enrollment in the county’s medical benefits plan. That added $200,000.
Another $350,000 was moved forward from 2014 for the remodel of the old Vectra Bank building. (Not to worry, though. We are told the delightfully cheesy ’60s design of the side facing 11th Street will not be changed.)
And another $250,000 goes to a contingency fund in case part of the expense of fighting a wildfire is charged back to the county. That is what happened with the Stateline Fire in 2012. When billed for those expenses in 2013, the county negotiated the amount down to $100,000, but setting aside $250,000 is only smart.
Overall, the adopted budget includes $1.93 million more in expenditures than the budget proposed in October. Far and away the most interesting component of that is the $1.07 million allocated for extra payroll.
As county Finance Director Diane Sorensen said, “The best way to explain this is to multiply the 14 days in a bi-weekly period times the 26 pay periods, which equals 364 days. Combine the extra day left over year after year with the extra day from Leap Year every four years, and you have one extra pay period every 11 years.”
Take 11 years worth of the uncounted 365th day and add three extra Leap Year days for 2004, 2008 and 2012 – presidential elections are always in leap years – and you have a 14-day pay period.
No, the county has not saved up all those extra days. And no, it is not actually spending an extra million bucks. It is only a calendar quirk that fits 27 pay periods into one fiscal year. (But then the idea of a leap year itself is a fudge factor.) The county clearly does not have money to burn. And the commissioners are right not to think or act as if it did. But seeing things improve always is heartening, and with that it looks as if the worst of the county’s budget woes are behind it.
As Sorensen said, “This was much easier than the fiscal plan for 2014.”
