Board OKs Tentative Budget Of $121 Million For Navajo CountyJuly 18th, 2008
By Linda Kor
The Navajo County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a tentative budget of $120.8 million for 2008-09.
This budget exceeds the $119.6 million 2007-08 budget by just over $1.2 million. The general fund total in 2007-08 was $45.8 million, or $1.6 million less than this fiscal year, though actual general fund expenditures in the last fiscal year were estimated at $35.7 million, or $12 million less than the amount budgeted.
The county expects to collect $5.2 million in primary property taxes in fiscal year 2008-09.
Finance Director James Menlove noted that the county’s primary property tax rate will show a slight decrease of three cents in 2008-09, but other than that the budget shows very little change from the previous one.
Menlove estimates that the county will collect nearly $6 million in secondary property taxes, which includes more than $2.5 million in flood control district revenues and $1.9 million in public health service district revenues.
More than $66.4 million in revenue is anticipated from other sources, including $22 million from inter-governmental contracts, $7.9 million in Highway User Revenue Funds, $4.1 million from license and permit fees, $2.9 million from auto lieu taxes, nearly $1 million from charges for county services, and $1 mil-lion from fines and forfeitures.
Of the $71.2 million budgeted in special revenue funds, the Public Works Department is set to receive the lion’s share at $29 million. The Navajo County Flood Control District comes in a distant second with $7.1 million budgeted from special revenues, followed by the health district with a $6 million special revenue budget. Other major recipients of special revenue funds include the county attorney’s office, jail operations, adult probation, the Superior Court and the Workforce Investment Authority. There will be $1.5 mil-lion in special revenue budgeted for capital outlay.
Of the $47.4 million budgeted in general revenue funds, jail operations is set to receive $5.6 million, the sheriff’s office will receive $5 million, indigent health will receive $3.3 million and construction projects are budgeted at $3.1 million.
There will be no capital projects funded by the budget for 2008-09 due to the sale of the bonds in June that will be used to cover those expenses.
According to Menlove, the capital projects are moving along as scheduled. The acquisition of sites and buildings at 550 N. Ninth Place and at 904 E. Deuce of Clubs in Show Low that will serve as a new regional county service center has been completed, and the Mogollon Complex in Heber is near completion. “A portion of the Heber Mogollon complex will be available to move into in the next couple of weeks, and a grand opening for the complex is scheduled for Sept. 2,” Menlove stated.
The replacement of electrical switchgear and generator at the Holbrook complex is by far the most ex-pensive of the projects, and is still in the engineering phase.
“At this point we’re not sure if the $2.2 million designated by the bond will be enough to cover the cost of this project,” commented Menlove. If that should be the case, the county has savings that will be used to complete that project.
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