Dear Editor:
How big is the Rio Blanco County budget? Do our expenses match revenues? And is there adequate public discussion before very large discretionary expenditures when tax revenues are shrinking?
If you guessed a 2022 budget of $37 million you would be right, an increase of $7.2 million in spending over last year. It also places the County in a significant deficit spending position, as expenditures are 150% larger than the revenues expected to be collected in 2022–a deficit overspending of more than $12 million. (County revenues are expected to be $25.6 million according to the published budget.)
While county citizens and staff labored over the past few months to study the budget for the coming year, one very large expenditure seemed to slip by without much notice or discussion.
Without any substantive discussion of alternatives, county commissioners quietly allocated a $4 million discretionary budget item labeled “Grants” out of the County Capital Improvement Fund. In a recent Rio Blanco Herald article the general public learned that the grant was in fact for permitting expenses for the proposed Wolf Creek Dam and Reservoir just miles from the Utah border.
That sure is a lot of money to spend without broad community knowledge, not to mention discussion and support. Were any other priorities considered? How about keeping the jail open, providing substantive county mental health services as other counties are doing, or providing permitting and costs to repair the already existing Lake Avery reservoir at our river’s headwaters and in need of repair? How about improving the already existing Rio Blanco Reservoir, Kenney Reservoir, or helping the Rangely Rec District which recently announced it was going out for a mill levy for needed funds?
Consider that this $4 million expenditure is going for a project:
• that the state water engineer opposed and labeled as ‘speculative”
• is in a hot dry flat desert area with anticipated huge evaporative loss – As much as 4 feet
• is just upriver from Lakes Mead and Powell serving millions of people which are both almost empty and likely can’t be filled as drought conditions are expected to continue
• and finally, this reservoir isn’t even gravity fed, the water has to be pumped to fill it at enormous annual estimated cost of $660,000
While commissioners have allocated spending precious dollars on a speculative project that may never be built or or have a real benefit, other county services are being cut and denied valuable funding such as keeping our jail open, or providing critical mental health services. Should this $4 million allocation be reconsidered with public discussion in light of the many unfunded public needs in our county?
Deirdre Macnab
Rio Blanco County
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