The 2016 Montezuma County budget is projected at $38.8 million, but that number is misleading.
Included in that figure is $12.2 million that social services receives from the state, and $2.2 million the county health department receives from state and federal government.
The remaining $24 million of the budget goes toward county departments and services, including wages and benefits for 218 full-time employees, and wages for 30 to 40 part-time workers.
The general fund is the largest expenditure at $13.8 million. It covers 24 departments, including eight elected officials, the sheriff’s office and detention center, administration, county attorney, IT department, fairgrounds, planning and mapping, grounds and buildings, veterans services, senior services, emergency management, CSU Cooperative Extension, and the county fair.
Road and bridges is budgeted for $7 million and includes maintaining the county road system, road improvements, snow removal and weed control.
Rounding out the county’s expenditures are social services ($931,000), the health department ($38,000), the vehicle fleet program ($1 million), and the landfill ($1.2 million).
Salaries and benefits cost the county $14 million, or 36 percent of the budget.
On the revenue side, the county estimates it will bring in $11 million in property taxes for 2016. An additional $13 million is garnered from fees, specific ownership revenues (license plates), PILT taxes, federal mineral leases, grants, and severance taxes.
“We have a balanced budget, with carryover reserves of $13 million, which is our savings account,” said county administrator Melissa Brunner.
A major expense for 2016 is the new county courthouse, expected to cost between $7.5 and $8 million. Montezuma County is the last county in the state to consolidate its county and district courts.
As a result, the county was awarded a $2 million grant from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs toward the project. Another grant of $583,000 was awarded from Colorado’s Underfunded Court Facility program.
Brunner said the county will have to dip into its the reserves to cover the remaining $5 million needed to build the courthouse project.
“We plan our budget very carefully and go after grants to take the burden off of the taxpayers,” Brunner said. “That way as we improve things we can use our savings account instead of asking the public for funding.”
jmimiaga@the-journal.com
