Budget change — Reporting change leads to apparent reduction in budget

A change in the county’s budget reporting style resulted in the apparent $8 million decrease in the county budget, according to Chairman Nathan Todd. The board discussed the concerns raised by the News Letter Journal on Aug. 5 during its regular meeting. 

Todd acknowledged receipt of the paper’s request for information on the change in the reporting of reserve funds in the budget and said that the board would not reply to “mass emails” requesting information from the board. He suggested that responding to said email could constitute a violation of law, although answering questions via email is not discussed in public record or open meeting laws. 

Todd explained on Aug. 5 that the board had discussed, in an unnoticed budget “workshop,” that the county would return to a more “Paulette Thompson” style for the budget worksheet. (Thompson is a former Weston County Clerk.) This change in reporting led to over $8 million in reserves being removed from not only the budget total but the total cash on hand reported as being available for county spending.

“It made more sense to show it as reserves than this year’s needs in that main line item,” he said. 

Todd noted that the way the county had been reporting the budget since 2019 made it look like the county had “double the money,: and suggested that this may be confusing. 

Instead of including the reserve totals in the requirements, the reserve totals are now just listed, and not totaled, directly above the general fund requirements. From 2019 to this year, those reserve totals were also included in the county’s cash on hand total, which meant they were included in the total budget requirements. 

Commissioner Marty Ertman expressed thoughts similar to Todd’s, stating that when the reserve totals are included in the budget total, it looks like the county’s total expenditures for the year include that amount of money, but those dollars are not actually expended. She noted that previous to the budget reporting change in 2019, the reserve totals were included as an addendum to the budget. Looking at the budget, Ertman said, the current board decided that it looked interesting to report it that way and therefore removed it from the budget requirements.

To help distinguish these reserves as their own section of the budget, Commissioner Vera Huber suggested that the reserve section be boxed off or marked and a total included. 

Ertman also said that she believes there was confusion over the investments versus reserves and explained that those funds are one and the same. 

She explained that the county invests all of its funds because “where else is it going to be?” 

“We just don’t have it sitting. She doesn’t have a vault in there, you know, and the idea is that we invest it to earn some interest” Ertman said. 

She added that the task of investing is on the county treasurer and sometimes when board members ask about investments and strategy, they get “frustrated and confused too.” 

Additionally, Todd said that it is important to note that a lot of the money in reserves is encumbered or earmarked for specific projects. 

According to the budget worksheet, county reserve funds total $8,581,938.15. The account breakdown is listed as $3,371,976.47 in cash reserve, $928,979.11 in depreciation reserve, $3,632,860.22 in county road reserve, $148,122.35 in fuel reserve, $400,000 in capital improvement reserve and $100,000 in road construction blade reserve.