County Receives Good News on Budget

The Kingman County Commissioners got some good news last week that the county’s general fund should have a little more carryover from 2017 than what it budgeted for.

Internal auditor Linda Langley told the county commission that the general fund is expected to have $1.1 million of cash carryover by the end of the year. That is a fair amount higher than the $808,000 that the county budgeted.

Langley said the county must budget a certain amount of carryover each year. She keeps track of the general fund and every department to ensure that expenditures don’t get too high and that there is enough cash flow to carry throughout the year.

She said the county employees have done a good job of keeping track of expenditures and making sure they stay within the budget. That has helped ensure the county will have more carryover going into 2018.

“Everybody really deserves credit in their departments because they have really tried to control their budgets,” Langley said.

The 2018 budget and mill levies have already been set, so there won’t be a reduction in the mill levy right away, nor is there a guarantee that it will come down when the 2019 budget is put together.

But Langley said it’s a good sign that the county will have more carryover than anticipated and having more carryover will help the county when it comes to setting levies in the future. And if the county can continue carrying over more than what’s anticipated each year, it might allow the county to lower the levies in future years.

She said the same holds true for all other departments outside the general fund, with the exception of the health department. That department will have some carryover, but it will be a thin margin, because the department has spent about $30,000 per month and has $32,000 remaining for its 2017 budget.

Langley said the county may need to dip into the general fund to help the health department out if, for example, the health department runs out of flu vaccine and needs to order more.

“If it runs out of flu vaccine, it has to order more to serve the public,” she said. “That money may have to come out of the general fund to keep the health department from going over budget.

Each year, the county must have a certain amount carried over from one year to the next. Langley said the county watches that closely so auditors won’t cite the county for not carrying over enough cash each year.