MORE BAD CLARK CO. BUDGET NEWS
Thursday, March 27th, 2008 -- 9:17 AM
For Clark County, a bleak-looking budget keeps looking bleaker.While the books won't officially close on the 2007 budget until auditors finish their work, the county finance committee this week learned a couple departments spent more than expected last year.
Finance Manager Terry Domasczek says the Health Care Center was over budget by about $160,000; the Social Services Department was $245,000 over.
That finance committee will meet in April and will likely fix the discrepancy by further diminishing the departments' fund balances.
The overages are a result of tight budgets and hard-to-predict factors. "They are very dependent on what the public uses. If there are more (clients) than projected, it can really jump up," Domaszek says.
With a state-imposed levy limit and nearly exhausted fund balances, the impact of the unexpected extra spending in '07 will be felt this year and in the future.
"When these fund balances get low and there's little to nothing left, and you can't use a fund balance of the same amount in that year?there's going to have to be some big changes," Domaszek warns.
Last fall, the County Board voted down a resolution that would have cut full-time employees from 40 hours, to 38 hours and 15-minutes per week.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.