County commissioners hold departmental budget reviews

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By Marshall Dunham

Staff Writer

The Archuleta County Board of County Commissioners (BoCC) held departmental budget hearings on Nov. 3 and 4, allowing the BoCC an additional opportunity to closely examine the county’s budget and ask questions before the Dec. 14 adoption of the budget.

Among the many budget hearings were foundational issues regarding the county’s overall budget, the Archuleta County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO) budget and the Road and Bridge Department’s budget.

In a follow-up meeting that occurred on Nov. 17, Archuleta County Administrator Bentley Henderson revealed that the total budget amounts to about $24.5 million, with $11 million being in the general fund.

“There are no red flags in this budget, in general,” Henderson commented at the end of a follow-up meeting held Nov. 17.

The BoCC plans to adopt the budget on Dec. 14. Colorado statute dictates that all counties must adopt a budget no later than Dec. 15.

Foundational issues

The first budget hearing that took place involved foundational issues concerning the county’s overall budget, with Henderson beginning the presentation by talking about revenue projections.

“We estimated our closeout of 2014, and used that as our 2015 revenue picture moving forward,” explained Henderson.

Henderson went on to explain that the sales tax revenue is estimated to increase 7 percent, and how that would play into the county’s projections.

“Given the way sales tax has come in this year, we felt like we could estimate a higher amount of sales tax revenue than we have in the past,” Henderson said.

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