RBC | The Board of Commissioners approved the 2023 budget last week during a special budget hearing. Budget and Finance Director Janae Stanworth gave a final rundown of expenditures and revenues, major projects and future budgeting strategy.
The county is budgeting $26.6 million in revenue, and $30 million in operating expenditures in 2023. Total revenues include the addition of 2022 Federal Mineral Lease ($1.8M) Severance Tax ($1.2M) and PILT ($628K).
Expenses over revenue will come from existing fund balances, including $2 million from the Road and Bridge fund set aside in 2015, and $1 million from the General Fund to the Capital Improvement Project (CIP) fund for the Meeker Airport waterline project.
In total, the county plans to spend $4.1 million from fund balances in 2023. Setting fund balance allocations aside, total expenditures for 2023 are $25.7 million, about $880K less than projected revenues of $26.6 million.
Stanworth said the county received $4 million in additional funding requests during budget workshops this year. She noted that the project budget revenue surplus allows the county to continue saving and allocating money for this year’s requests to future budgets. Examples of projects the county needs to save for include:
- gravel crushing
- bridge replacements
- radio replacements
- laptop/desktop/server/switch and other IT equipment replacements
- $1.8 million project at the Meeker Airport
- $11 million project at the Rangely Airport
“These are just some of the things that we need to make sure we have funds set aside to be able to help offset in case property tax decreases because we’re in a constant up and down kind of fluctuation.”
Major expenditure increases in 2023 include $1.2 million for personnel costs, including an increase from 2022 of about 4.11 full time equivalent (FTE) employees. Stanworth said new positions are for marketing, grant writing, and a radio tech position she said could help offset contracted expenses. Other increases under personnel come from a 3% uptick for health insurance and $763K for market-wage adjustments.
New projects included in the 2023 budget include:
- $740K – FTTx expansion – General Fund Contingency
- $150K – core switch upgrade – Capital Expenditure Fund
- $15K – dispatch chairs – General Fund
- $22.8K – Printer replacement/consolidation – Central Services Fund
- $118K – Year 2 of 5 year upgrade plan for communications – Communications Fund
Other projects without numbers listed include:
- Marketing/website for ADA compliance – General fund contingency
- Museum – General fund contingency
- Fairfield Center Boiler system – General fund contingency
- Rangely Shop remodel – Commissioner’s discretionary grant fund
- Meeker Fairgrounds Fan – American Rescue Plan (ARP)
- Meeker Front Office remodel – ARP
- County security/cyber security systems – ARP (contingent on grant funding)
- Meeker Fairgrounds Heaters – Conservation trust fund
Items listed under contingency will only be funded if commissioners approve funding allocations with a supplemental budget. Other funding items are budgeted only if additional grant funding comes in to pay for them. You can watch the special budget overview at https://youtu.be/B0FvBGA68yU?t=450
By LUCAS TURNER | [email protected]om
