County reviews budget requests

Raises, wages and contracts.

Jay County Council took another look at the county’s 2024 budget Wednesday, asking questions of each department head about their respective requests.

Next year’s budget sits at just under $22.3 million, an increase of about $1.44 million from the current year. Approximately $466,000 of that amount is designated for wage increases, which include the addition of two new positions at Jay County Health Department for about $92,000. (The new roles, a school health liaison and a health educator, will be paid for using the enhanced state funding starting in 2024. Jay County will receive at least $222,698 next year and a minimum of $445,396 in 2025 with the enhanced funding, effectively doubling the department’s budget in two years.) 

Wage increases mostly range between 2% and 7%, with a few outliers: the health department’s food inspector may get a 25% raise, council members could see a 20% raise and commissioners, the coroner and veterans affair officer could all get a 10% raise. (Each of those positions’ pay is at least 20% or more — council is 44% — lower than the external midpoint rate for their positions, according to information compiled by consulting firm Waggoner, Irwin, Scheele and Associates.)

Council members Harold Towell and Cindy Bracy asked various questions during the hour-and-a-half meeting, learning from department heads as they made their way through the budget.

Commissioner president Chad Aker confirmed a few annual charges in the commissioners’ budget, such as telephone bills for Jay County Courthouse.

“Again, this is stuff the commissioners don’t have control over,” said Aker.

Bracy reassured him, saying she was asking to learn the information. (This is her first budgeting process as a council member, having taken over the role in January.)

Towell questioned Aker’s words.

“You said you don’t have control over it (your budget), but you do,” he said. “Do you not?”

Discussion turned to funds for telephone costs ($8,500) and computer maintenance ($150,000). Aker explained commissioners pay for contractual fees and that they are looking at options to cut costs throughout the county. (Franks noted approximately $75,000 of the computer maintenance fund is used for financial and taxing software used by the treasurer and auditor.)

Towell pointed out the fund used in previous years for Jay County Development Corporation (JCDC) has been eliminated from the economic development income tax (EDIT) portion of commissioners’ budget.

Aker said the county will be paying JCDC out of the contractual services fund. (Citing Indiana Code 6-3.6-10-2, commissioners have pushed for the county and JCDC to have a contract, which the JCDC board approved last month.)

Bracy also questioned commissioners’ recent decision to lump contractual services into one fund with undefined amounts for each contract. Approximately $280,000 is allocated for the fund next year, leaving enough room for services from Jay County Development Corporation ($130,000) and East Central Indiana Regional Planning ($100,000) in 2024 as well as a $50,000 buffer for additional needs. (Council agreed in August to decrease the fund from commissioners’ original request of $580,000.)

“It doesn’t really list what and who is getting what,” she said. “I feel like I’m going to Walmart with my eyes closed and my children are sticking things in the cart and then I have to go check out.”

She suggested specifying designated amounts into the fund for each contract. Aker noted the contractual services needed may vary annually, with Bracy pointing out “big-ticket items” such as contracts with Kleinpeter Consulting, JCDC and East Central Indiana Regional Planning.

Aker referenced development of the 68 acres the county purchased earlier this year.

“When we’re setting this budget, we don’t always know who we’re going to be working with throughout the year, so we put this in contractual services,” he explained.

Bracy requested commissioners specify amounts for contracts they expect to continue utilizing through the fund.

Council members also granted an approximately $1,300 raise to Jay County surveyor Brad Daniels.

Council president Jeanne Houchins explained that Jay County Personnel Committee recently recommended bumping the surveyor’s pay, noting it is approximately $4,000 behind the external midpoint for the position across the state, according to the study by Waggoner, Irwin, Scheele and Associates.

Bracy questioned council’s decision to give raises despite a deficit budget, later voicing her disapproval of giving council and commissioners a pay bump. Houchins noted the county has been attempting to catch up with salaries as compared to other counties for years.

Sheriff Ray Newton explained a few increases in his budget, including an additional $127,000 for medical and hospital expenses for inmates at the jail. The fund currently allocates $23,000 annually.

(Newton pointed out he will likely need to seek additional appropriations for the fund before the end of the current year.)

“We are a hospital, and believe me, we have a lot of people who are sick in there,” said Newton. “Illnesses, medication — that’s a part of our responsibilities, so, there again, nothing we can do to avoid that. They have to be provided this care.”

He also noted an estimated $18,000 will be added in contractual services for information technology repairs, which had previously been taken out of the commissioners’ budget.

Per Indiana law, he added, the sheriff’s office no longer charges for handgun permits — as of July 2022, permits are no longer required to legally carry, conceal or transport a handgun in Indiana — and the revenue from those permits had been used previously to help pay for ammunition and flares. As a result, next year’s allocation for those expenses is up by $7,000.

Towell questioned the $109,211.76 allocated for the Spillman contract, which Newton pointed out county officials approved in June. The county purchased Spillman Flex, a computer-aided drafting (CAD) mapping system tied into the county’s dispatch system, and split the $90,000 cost with Portland. The county also entered into an agreement with a few local municipalities to share the annual cost of its Spillman server. Per the agreement, Portland pays 40% and Redkey and Pennville each pay 5%.

Also Wednesday, council approved Jay County Solid Waste District’s budget at $302,290.