County prepares to close out FY15, look ahead to FY17

As the books on the county's 2015 fiscal year are about to be closed, the county commissioners are already beginning to think about FY 2017.

The commissioners met with Terry Sercer, CPA with Diehl, Banwart, Bolton of Fort Scott Tuesday, who was going through the county's financial reports to answer a few questions he has before declaring FY 2015 closed. After that, he said he would make a final determination on how much money the county will have available to carry over into FY16.

"We approved some end-of-year transfers to clean up some funds and put some money in reserves if we could," Sercer said. "We're going to have sufficient cash to end the general fund and I think we're going to be able to cover the negative in the employee benefit fund."

Sercer said there will be enough leftover to begin FY16, which started Jan. 1. Had there not been any carryover, the county would have begun FY16 in the hole, he said.

When writing the FY16 budget, a carryover was included. If it was included, but not met, then the county would begin the fiscal year in the hole, Sercer said. If there is more carryover than had been anticipated, the additional amount could be transferred to other funds, such as the equipment reserve or capital improvement.

"I can't tell you for sure right now, but I don't think have much to transfer of anything," Sercer said. "And of course the roads and bridges won't have anything to transfer into their reserves, either."

He said he also wanted to share some positive budget news.

"If we have enough to transfer from general to the reserve, it's going to be a little bit -- 10 to 20-thousand -- but it's not going to be more than that, if it's that," he said.

Sercer said he would send the commissioners an email by the end of the day or the end of the week -- as soon as he is done "in the vault." After he determines how the county's FY15 has ended, he said he would let the commissioners know if there is anything they need to consider for FY16. He said he would meet with them again next week to answer any questions.

He said he also wanted to bring up the "positives."

"In all honesty, I think the departments did a good job watching their budgets," Sercer said. "They were really close, most of them were under budget."

Bourbon County Treasurer Rhonda Dunn said the appraiser's and election funds, which are not in the general fund, have a surplus in addition to the budgeted carryover. She asked if a reserve fund could be established for those two funds. The county will need to replace election equipment in the future and the appraiser's office needs to replace a vehicle and upgrade some equipment, she said.

"Because ideally, sometimes surpluses get budgeted and spent in a year's time. I think those funds need a reserve," Dunn said. "We need to protect their surpluses for future expenditures."

Sercer said it is possible to create those reserve funds, and the commissioners agreed that would be a good idea. First District Commissioner Lynne Oharah said other departments need a reserve, too, and cited the hard-surface roads fund as an example.

Sercer recommended sending a memo to each department congratulating them on doing a good job keeping their budget down.

"That was impressive. I was glad to see that," Sercer said. "Sometimes people can get the mentality, 'It's my budget and by golly you gave me $250,000 to spend and I'm going to spend $250,000."