The county’s budget will be out for public review in a week.

Commissioner Ben Kafferlin said during Wednesday’s meeting that the commissioners would be voting on the 2020 spending plan on Dec. 26.

County code requires a minimum 20 day period for public review. Kafferlin said that a draft of the budget was completed by Fiscal Director Eric Hern for the commissioners to review over the weekend.

He said those revisions would be incorporated into the document that goes out for public review by noon on Dec. 4.

Hern noted that with new finance software that the 2020 budget will look different in its appearance.

The numbers will look different too.

Kafferlin noted that the county’s audit “identified funds the county” has been paying and receiving for years but didn’t make it into the budget because they weren’t part of the general fund. Incorporating those funds will make the budgeted amounts not an apples to apples comparison to last year.

Hern noted that “a lot of things got moved around.”

“The other big thing is the move to consolidate the health care in one bucket,” Commissioner Jeff Eggleston said. “That will affect a lot of those budgets if we were going to compare them to last year.”

Tax Anticipation Note

Eggleston noted that the county would usually have pulled $3.5 million from the TAN at this point in the year and have, to date, only drawn $1.5 million due to the “efforts of the finance office.”

He said that would “translate to pretty substantial interest savings.”

Hern said the county typically budgets $30,000 annually for TAN interest and speculated the county would expend “less than half of that.” describing the savings as “north of $10,000.”

Inmate Commissary

The commissioners signed off on a new inmate commissary contract.

Warden Jon Collins said they want to switch to a provider that “better suits our needs.” The change will be implemented in early February.

He noted that the commissions to the company are the same but that the “benefit package is phenomenal” and “a lot better than what we currently have.”

The commissioners also signed off on a tax collection agreement with the City of Warren.