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County officials continue budget presentations
Nevada Daily Mail
Vernon County commissioners are continuing to sort through the proposed budgets of county officials in the hope of finalizing a proposed budget by Jan. 17.
Presiding Commissioner David Darnold said, "We'll meet with each one, and at the end we'll compare the numbers (proposed) to the revenue numbers -- then we'll have to do some work to make them match up."
On Tuesday, budget meetings with Vernon County Prosecutor Lynn Ewing III and others were postponed, but a work session was conducted with Vernon County Assessor Cherie Roberts.
Salaries consume the lion's share of the budget in the assessor's office. The state legislature sets the salary for the elected assessor and no raise is planned for Roberts; however, the budget requested 3- percent pay raises for employees and longevity increases for long-term employees.
Darnold noted that in the end, the county may not be able to fund salary increases at that rate.
Much discussion centered around the accounting of a fund for upgrades in the assessor's computer systems. The money is expected accumulate to an amount of about 50,000 by the end of 2006, and the county plans to begin the upgrade in 2007. The issue under discussion was whether the monies should remain in a separate fund or be transferred at some point and included in the general fund. In the end, officials decided to keep these funds in a separate account.
This morning, the commissioners met with Vernon County Sheriff Ron Peckman. Darnold said the sheriff's segment of the budget is the largest of the county's departments and includes sheriff's office law enforcement operations as well as jail operations.