County looking at no mill levy increase

The Bourbon County Commissioners are spending the weekend reviewing the 2015 budget before giving their official approval for publication.

As of Friday, the county's budget does not have a mill levy increase.

"That is remarkable you have the same mill levy. You've gone up in spending. That's not usual," said Terry Sercer of Diehl, Banwart and Bolton CPAs, who assists the county with the budget work. "Usually if you go up X-thousand, the mill levy goes up X-thousand. But this year you've had some tax sales that helped us a lot. So it's been a lot of work. You guys have done more work than me. It's taken a long time."

While it may have been a lengthy process, Sercer said it might be worth it.

"I guess it could have been published a week or two ago. But by doing it now, it drug out, but I think we're able to get it down to a mill levy that we want," he said.

Sercer said the commissioners went through "every single cotton-pickin' budget, every line item."

"You earned your pay the last three weeks," Sercer said.

Sercer said he thinks there were eight drafts of the budget. Each time a draft was examined, someone caught something that had been omitted, and work would begin again to bring a balanced budget to the table.

"Just take a peek at it," Sercer said. "If we publish it and realize there's a mistake -- too late. But if we wait 'til Monday and see a mistake, we can fix it."

Second District Barbara Albright thanked Sercer for the work he did with the budget, but Sercer said it was a group effort.

Budget work

After each department head submitted their budget request, the commissioners were facing an increase of about 12.5 mills. When the commissioners ended their regular meeting Monday, they were looking at a .851 mill levy increase. They said they hoped the increase could be kept below 1 mill, and continued crunching numbers during budget work sessions throughout the week.

"We went through line-by-line and cut out expenses where we thought it was proper to cut," Commission Chairman Allen Warren said.

"And we discussed ways to save money and ways to keep things in the budget," Albright said.

Warren said the county will not replace one employee who has quit, which Albright said is one example of savings.

On the other hand, county employees will receive a 1-percent raise and some departments will be adding staff. The sheriff's office will be able to hire one full time and one part-time employee and one position each in the register of deeds and clerk's offices can go from part-time to full time.

With no increase in the mill levy, the commissioners said the county will not make some purchases it had planned, such as a dump truck and a roller.

However, the county is considering opening a third rock quarry in the southern portion of the county in 2015. The state has provided a list of eight possible sites, but none have been chosen. Albright said the third quarry will enable the county to get more rock on the roads in the southern portion of the county.

"That will not be a savings," Warren said. "That will be an opportunity to get more rock on the roads."

"I disagree with that slightly," Coleman said. "It's not going to be a savings immediately, but I think in the long term, with the fuel usage, the wear and tear (on trucks) I think it will make a difference. We haven't really put a pen to it yet."

Warren said because the trucks will have a shorter distance to haul rock, the county would be able to put more rock on the roads.

Coleman later said he is pleased with the budget.

"It's taken three weeks of a lot of meetings and going through every line item, one-by-one," Warren said. "We had good input and cooperation from the department heads."

Albright said the commissioners have come away from the budget process with ideas on how to make it easier for department heads to manage budgets.

"It was a real education for a lot of people, going through those budgets, seeing where things are coded and making sure they're coded appropriately," Albright said.

She said commissioners spent a lot of time looking at the actual numbers from 2013 and 2014 and using those as a base for this year's budget.

"It was a lot of comparison of data," she said.

Coleman said commissioners also looked at numbers from 2012.

"We pretty much had a history of what would be a good expectation," Albright said. "And if it did increase, what would cause it and what it is that needs to be done, and if there were legitimate reasons why something would increase. Sometimes there were legitimate reasons why it would not be as much. It was pretty analytical this time."

Coleman said working on the budget this year was probably harder than last year.

"Last year we were focused on two or three areas," he said. "This year, we were focused on a lot more."

Albright said she thinks everybody gained from the process, and Coleman agreed.

"Look at what we learned to help us out in the future," he said.

Warren said while other tax-based agencies have a financial manager on staff, the county does not. Handling the budget is left to the commissioners.

"If we were working on the finances of the county every day, or part of each week, like a financial manager does at other entities, why, that would make a difference," Warren said.

He said the commissioners must have the budget work completed by the end of August. They began working on the budget the first week of June.

Albright said another key factor in the county's budget is that unlike a school district, which has multiple revenue streams, such as state and federal aid, the county relies on the mill levy for its revenue. Warren said the county does receive Federal Exchange money for roads and bridges projects.

Commissioners are expected to approve the budget for publication at 9:30 a.m. Monday. A public hearing could be held Sept. 8.

Treasurer's reports

Treasurer Rhonda Dunn provided the commissioners with the idle funds report, which shows the county has $6,326,619 invested. Dunn said she has been moving certificates of deposits towards banks that offer a higher interest rate.

Dunn also presented the quarterly statement, which shows the balance for each fund as of July 31. Dunn said she is required by state statute to publish in the legal newspaper.

"We'd like to have this published in 6-point type," Warren said.

"They won't print it at 6-point type," Dunn said.

"I guess my only comment is we're disappointed we can't get it in 6-point font," Warren said. "We do have counties around us that are printing it in 6-point font. It's taxpayer money."

Because The Tribune offered legal publications at no charge to the county in 2013, the last time the county was charged for the delinquent tax list was 2012. At that time, Dunn said the county paid about $5,500 to The Tribune for the legal publication. This year, the cost, using 8-point type, was $3,300.

"I asked them to tell me how much it would be if we could print it in 6-point font and it's about $700 less," Dunn said. "The Tribune requirement costs the taxpayers about $700 per year."

Warren said other counties are getting their legals published using 6-point type.

"I would just like to request the Tribune print reports that we request in 6-point," Warren said.

Dunn said she sent one report in 6-point type, but it came back in 8-point.

However, on Friday afternoon, the Tribune confirmed the Iola Register and Chanute Tribune also print legals in 8-point type. The Linn County News uses 9-point type and the Pittsburg Morning Sun uses 7-point type.

"We spend a lot of money printing required information at a higher rate," Dunn said.

"And it is leaving the impression that The Tribune is forcing us to use 8-point type in order for them to make more money," Warren said. "I regret having to say that. If other papers had the other same requirement, I would fully understand. They don't. We have to use The Tribune."

"And I think it's good to go on record that as the elected officials, we've done everything we can," Dunn said. "We're meeting all the requirements in the paper and the statutes, and we're stuck in the middle."

The Tribune did not charge for the county's legal publications in 2013, but this year the rate is $2.40 per column inch, which is the discount volume rate based on the amount of inches Bourbon County publishes in a year. The delinquent tax list -- 3.5 pages running in three issues -- cost $3,283.20 this year.

The Tribune charged $8.05 per column inch for legal publications in 2012 and the cost for the seven-plus page delinquent tax list, which ran three times, was $11,592.

In 2013, if the county had been charged $2.40 per column inch, the delinquent tax list would have cost $6,652, according to The Tribune's files.

A comparison of surrounding counties' newspapers on Friday shows the Iola Register legal rate is $9.15 per column inch, The Chanute Tribune charges $6.96 per column inch and The Linn County News charges $1.05 per line. The current legal rate at the Morning Sun was not available.

Dunn and Warren did not discuss the reduced legal rate since 2012.

Warren said Dunn did everything she could to reduce the cost of the delinquent tax list. She said there were 200 fewer names published this year.

"When I came here, there were pages and pages," Dunn said.