COUNTY DEPARTMENT HEADS TAKE LESSONS IN BUILDING THEIR BUDGETS
 | Author:
Nancy Marks, Reporter
Nancy Marks: MT43 News Secretary and News Editor |
COUNTY DEPARTMENT HEADS TAKE LESSONS IN BUILDING THEIR BUDGETS
Nancy Marks
Reporter
Broadwater County Department heads and elected officials studied a new workbook formula for building their coming year budgets at the June 21 County Commission meeting with guidance from consultant Bill Jarocki of Helena.
Jarocki has worked in governmental finance, both internationally and within the United States. He began by saying Broadwater County government is unique on how it formulates its budgets. “The county is very secure in its funding because you base your next year’s budget on last year’s value (revenues.) In other words, your budget is based on the exact level of paid expenditures from last year. That way the treasurer only taxes county residents what is needed,” he explained.
Using a PowerPoint presentation, Jarocki reviewed budgets for several county departments.
Each department workbook Jarocki devised makes clear where revenues come from and what expenditures can be cut back to meet the budget guidelines. As an example, Jarocki used the Community Planning and Development office. He pointed out Director Nichole Brown has many sources of revenue to meet her expenses. New subdivision application fees and licenses cover much of her department's costs, so she uses little actual taxpayer monies to run the department. She does not have much room for cutting costs.
On the other hand, Broadwater County Justice Court operates mostly on property taxes. In both Justice Court and Community Planning departments the only place department heads can lower their budgets is in costs not related to personnel.
County Public Health Department Director Ruby Taylor has the luxury of a budget based on about 300 sources of revenue. With this new workbook style, Taylor can track every grant and how she spends the funds, he said. The Public Health Department uses no county taxpayer dollars in its operations.
Jarocki complemented Broadwater County Finance Officer Debbie Kelley for hitting a 99.34% mark in meeting predicted expenses for the 2023-2024 fiscal year. He pointed out that good public policy depends on department heads who understand how budgets work and can adjust to save money. “Mastering the budgeting process is part science but is also an art. We want to do the best we can to show the taxpayers what their dollars are worth,” he said.
Jarocki was first hired by the county several years ago to help resolve a crisis in the sheriff’s office budget. “We have built our budget planning around what we learned from that process,” he concluded.
A member of the public asked what the difference will be in this year’s budget compared to last year’s, considering how many people have been added to the county payroll and salary increases. Commissioner Darrel Folkvord answered,” We’ll use our best guess. Outside forces such as fuel costs impact our planning, but we have some reserves to take care of the shortfall,”
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Image 1 Caption: Bill Jarocki
