BLOOMFIELD — Stoddard County officials approved the 2019 budget with projected revenues of nearly $11.7 million, ending in the black with just over $11.4 million in expenditures.
A public hearing was held Tuesday morning in the commission chambers for public comments prior to the budget approval. No citizens were in attendance and the hearing was closed after an hour.
“We feel like this is a pretty conservative budget and it’s a budget with more anticipated revenues than expenditures,” Clerk Cecil Weeks said.
The biggest change in the county’s budget will be the addition of the two new half-cent sales tax.
The county is estimated to receive about $2.1 million in eight months of collection from both voter-approved half cent sales taxes.
The first half-cent sales tax, which has no sunset, is for the purpose of maintaining the Stoddard County Jail and sheriff’s office operations.
The second half-cent sales tax, with a sunset of seven years, was approved for the purpose of the renovation of the existing jail and construction, equipment and design cost of a jail addition.
The propositions passed with nearly 60 percent approval from voters last August.
In addition to the sales tax revenues, just over $1.2 million will also be transferred from county general revenue for the sheriff’s department operation. The department also has earmarked funds from a sheriff’s deputy grant and other accounts, including the law enforcement training fund.
Another noticeable increase was in the coroner’s budget, which will go from $54,813 in 2018 to $87,772.
The increase comes after former Presiding Commissioner Greg Mathis left office at the first of the year.
Mathis told the commission last October once he left office, he no longer would hold bodies in his morgue at Rainey-Mathis Funeral Home for the county, or assume the responsibility and liability.
Current Stoddard County Coroner Kenny Pope is a funeral director and embalmer with Rainey-Mathis Funeral Home. In the event Stoddard County elected a coroner who was not tied with a funeral home, commissioners have said a county morgue needed to be established.
The county is planning to move forward with building a stand alone morgue near the jail expansion project, on land already owned by the county. It has budgeted $60,000 for the project.
Mathis also has said he endured a majority of costs while serving as presiding commissioner by maintaining vehicles, insurance, autopsy and toxicology reports and equipment.
Funds for office supplies and remains pouches increased from $343 last year to $5,000 for 2019. Costs for a medical cot, cell phone usage and a car purchase were also included in the coroner’s budget, adding to the increased amount.
“I think the budget shaped out good,” Weeks said, adding he received help from former Clerk Joe Watson on the budget.
“You can only do a budget based on history, and that’s what the budget is based on is history and history revenue,” Weeks said.