Commissioners approve budget

by Cindy Glasson

The Hot Springs County Commissioners held their final public meeting Monday, approving the final budget for 2017-2018.

General Fund requirements for the fiscal year amount to $10,519,320.55, up $412,563.50 from last year.

At the start of the budget session there was some worry that employees would have to be eliminated, but with the help of Federal PILT (payment in lieu of taxes) monies amounting to $800,000, that threat was held off for another year.

Some lines that changed from last year include an additional $7,000 for the courthouse, an additional $15,000 for the airport THP, $33,000 less for the airport HSG, an additional $7,100 for the fair and an additional $17,689.50 in emergency expenditures.

A huge cost savings, $50,000, happened due to the hospital forming its district, becoming self-sufficient.

In a breakdown of the other general accounts, most remained holding the same budget as 2016-2017.

One of the exceptions to that is the health insurance for county employees, which went up 21 percent over last year. The commissioners decided to absorb the additional 21 percent rather than passing that cost on to the employees, making the budget go from $512,632 to $660,073.

Funding for the Alternate Emergency Operations Center, capital improvements, courthouse equipment, fair capitol projects, county road funding, search and rescue, youth alternatives and a new line, airport fuel system, all saw raises in the bottom line.

A few which received lower or no funding this year were the BLM/Shoshone Forest, DCI, jail visitation room renovation line, library endowment, SLIB projects match, the airport fly-in, consensus grants, homeland security grants, some public health grants along with no new airport grants, several grants for the sheriff’s department and the Volunteers of America juvenile justice grant.

“We tried to leave things as level as possible,” commissioner Tom Ryan said. “We were afraid of cuts, but PILT money came in higher, so no cuts ere necessary. We really benefitted from that.”

Commission chair John Lumley said the commissioners will continue to lobby for PILT to remain the same, pushing back against many of the eastern states who do not see the benefit to the smaller states.