York County Press Release
YORK COUNTY – The process toward formulating the county’s budget is nearly complete, and as the preliminary budget stands now, there will only be a 1% increase over last year.
The York County Commissioners have been working on the budget for some time, and during their regular meeting this week, they went back through to talk about certain points of spending.
“Jill (Clay, the county’s budget consultant) was here last week and between her, us, the clerk and the treasurer, the budget is nearing the finish line,” said Commissioner Chairman Randy Obermier. “If we send this proposed budget forward, we are looking at about a 1.2% increase, so we will not have to participate in the postcard meeting this year.
“I’d like to see us grow our cash reserves a little more with inheritance tax money,” Obermier continued. “I think starting to transfer funds across gives us some cushion, and it is less visible as the legislature focuses on what’s being held in the inheritance funds as they work to get rid of it altogether. Daniel (Commissioner Grotz) and I are proposing putting another $500,000 from the inheritance fund into the cash reserves. There is roughly $5.7 million in the inheritance fund now. About $700,000 of that is spoken for, so the real number is about $5 million.”
“I think it’s a good idea to move some of that because state senators don’t understand how long it takes to build that amount up,” said Commissioner LeRoy Ott. “Some counties spend all their inheritance tax dollars, and this county doesn’t do that. It’s good to put it where Omaha and Lincoln can’t get it.”
“I think department heads and the county officials did really well, the best they could when formulating their budgets,” Obermier said. “I want to thank them for all their hard work.”
“And with the diversion programs, we need to make sure we are clear about what grants are funding,” Grotz said. “As we’ve said in the past for some of these types of things, if the grants don’t come in, these things won’t happen.”
When it came to the budget for the roads department, Commissioner Andy Bowman said the purchase of a new truck and trailer “is something we have to do, so if inheritance tax can bear that expense, let’s use that for this purchase.”
York County Highway Superintendent Harvey Keim said it’s been a long time since a truck with a trailer has been purchased, and this new purchase will replace one of two sets, which have more than 500,000 miles on them.
The commissioners agreed to transfer money from the inheritance fund to the roads fund when it comes to purchasing the truck with a trailer. They also agreed to transfer $500,000 from the inheritance fund to the cash reserves, as discussed earlier.
“Even in doing both of these things, we will still be on the top side of $4 million in the inheritance fund,” Obermier said.
“Now, regarding the budget requests from outside agencies, which we take from the inheritance tax fund each year,” Obermier said. “Did you guys come up with figures you want to allow for each?”
Commissioner Grotz said the budget committee reviewed all those requests again, “and these are the numbers we came up with for each:”
- CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates): $42,000
- Blue Valley Community Action: $11,000
- Hope Crisis Center: $13,000
- Blue Valley Behavioral Health: $5,000
- York Adopt A Pet: $5,000
- Kilgore Library: $17,500
- York County Development Corporation: $76,000
- Southeast Nebraska Development District: $7,449
“In the past, with YCDC, we have signed on with a commitment over four years, with incremental increases,” Obermier said. “That is a way to gradually increase it. Has there been any discussion about that?”
“Lisa (YCDC Director Hurley) said she is happy with any contribution we can make,” Grotz said. “We talked about that. She said she could put together something regarding their goals for the next five years or so, and we can look at that.”
“And just a reminder,” Obermier said to the county commissioners, “this is all coming out of the inheritance tax fund, and if that goes away, it will be difficult to find money for these agencies from property taxes.”
The commissioners will hold the budget public hearing on Sept. 3.
“A lot of hours have been spent on this,” Obermier said. “It is nearly at the end. Once Kurt (Assessor Bulgrin) sets the valuation numbers, we will know more about our levy. And between now and Sept. 3, we will find some of our missing information and get that taken care of.”
While the local budget is nearly done, the commissioners said they have been watching activity at the state legislature.
“The legislation we are looking at now, at the statehouse, restricts counties and cities,” Obermier said, “and somehow the biggest consumer of property taxes (school districts) are not being affected which baffles me. The legislature isn’t achieving what they were going for. I don’t know how they can come live in our shoes while passing the laws to control us. There will be a lot of change but it still doesn’t appear there will be any changes on property tax. Daniel and I reached out to Senator Jana Hughes last week. We just have to keep paying attention to what they do at the Unicameral.”
