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September 29, 2012

Elkhart County budget OK’d at $79.6 million

By JOHN KLINE THE GOSHEN NEWS

GOSHEN — Elkhart County budget numbers for 2013 were officially adopted Friday morning following a brief and uneventful final reading held for the public.

The approved numbers showed some notable changes from those presented during the budget’s first reading Thursday morning, as those numbers did not include the numerous reductions approved for the final reading.

At the close of Friday’s meeting, a total of $79,645,878 in expenditures were approved by the County Council for 2013 — a slight increase over last year’s approved budget of $78,503,200.

Approximately $2.1 million in funding requests were removed from the originally submitted budget of $81,779,452 in order to arrive at the final budget numbers for 2013. While significant, that number was noticeably less than the $9.1 million in cuts made during the balancing of the 2012 budget.

All in all, $45,673,341 was approved under the “personal services” category across all funds, a decrease of $333,772 from the budget’s first reading.

Funding for “personal services” is responsible for payment of employee salaries and wages, pensions, health insurance, and other fringe benefits.

Fund totals under the “supplies” category saw a drop of $23,000 to settle at $5,301,317, followed by a much larger $1,776,802 drop in the “other services and charges” category for a total of $28,174,220 across all funds.

The “supplies” category includes everything from printed forms and copy machine supplies to fuel, tires, clothing and medical supplies, while the “other services” section includes funding for things such as legal or medical services, data processing services, postage, sustenance and travel expenses.

Rounding out the 2013 budget were the “capital outlay” numbers that came to $497,000. There was no reduction in the capital outlay fund from Thursday’s first reading.

“Capital outlay” items typically involve a long-term expense. This can include architectural and/or consultant fees, construction of new buildings, additions and major equipment purchases.

As for the levy numbers, the total approved amount to be raised across all funds came to $33,647,338 with a net tax rate of .4961 per $100 of assessed valuation. That’s up just slightly over the approved 2012 numbers of $33,304,107 with a net tax rate of .4720.

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