There have been reductions in the county workforce, employee benefits, and services provided by the county, and more cuts are anticipated. That’s the word from Carbon County Commission Chairman Jae Potter following a special public meeting last Friday to consider amendments to the 2017 budget, and to review and adopt the tentative budget for 2018.
In an interview with the Sun Advocate, Commissioner Potter confirmed there have been layoffs and there are more to come. He said, “The 2018 tentative budget is balanced, and reflects services changed and departmental reductions.” He declined to provide numbers or name the departments impacted by the layoffs, but said the reductions won’t affect public safety.
In that special public meeting, commissioners avoided any definitive declaration about layoffs. Commissioner Potter prefaced the meeting with a statement regarding the 2018 tentative budget. He said, “There are a couple of things that I think would be important for the public to know and understand. First of all, the tentative budget for 2018 that we’ll present today will not have any tax increase in it.”
The second thing Commissioner Potter talked about was a letter from the State Auditor. “We had them down the week of Thanksgiving. They spent three days down here working with our clerk/auditor’s office and with the commission, and have given us a letter, basically for review.” The commissioners said the letter contained no findings, but was a list of best practices recommendations.
After County Clerk/Auditor Seth Oveson presented proposed adjustments to various funds and departments, the 2017 budget was declared to be in balance and in compliance, with projected taxes matching the tax rate calculations. Deputy County Attorney Christian Bryner advised the county was only introducing the proposed amendments to the 2017 budget and not voting to approve. He said the vote will be on a separate agenda with a public hearing.
As attention was turned to the 2018 Tentative Budget, Commissioner Potter stated the budget will affect areas within the entire county government in regard to services and departmental reorganizations.
Commissioner Mellor added, “You will notice that we are making some changes in respect to the county trying to seek greater efficiencies. There are some personnel duties and responsibilities that will shift from one department to another.”
County Clerk/Auditor Seth Oveson pointed out the 2018 Assessing and Collecting Levy, for which an increase of 45 percent had been proposed, was the same as the 2017 budget ($889,034), and did not reflect a tax increase. Total General Fund revenue for the 2018 tentative budget amounts to $14,503,466. The tentative budget is available to view online at the Carbon County website, carbon.utah.gov.
According to a press release, Carbon County postponed the December 6 regular commission meeting, as well as the continuing public hearing on proposed property tax levy rate increases previously scheduled for that date, to December 13. The postponement is to enable the public hearing on the proposed levy rate increases to take place in conjunction with the public hearing on the tentative 2018 budget, which will also take place on December 13, and allow sufficient time for required legal notice of these public hearings to be made.
Commissioner Potter said the hearing regarding the tax levy increases is just to close out the comment period; the proposals are not being considered at the present time, and are not included in the 2018 tentative budget. He said there will be more information and discussion about the changes that were made in order to balance the tentative budget prior to the public hearing.
The public hearings will be held in the commission chambers at the Carbon County Administration Building on Wednesday, December 13 beginning at 6:00 p.m. The public is invited to provide comments on both the tentative budget and the proposed tax levy rate increases.
A survey to provide feedback is available online at carbon.utah.gov/notices. Printed copies of the survey are also available at the Senior Center and the Commission office and the Clerk’s office.
A final decision on the proposed tax rate increase and the adoption of the final 2018 budget will be made on December 20, 2017.
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