PORT ANGELES — Clallam County’s finances are right in line with the 2010 budget, a mid-year budget analysis shows.
“Essentially, the midyear 2010 status report is best described as pretty much as expected,” County Administrator Jim Jones said in a Tuesday budget review hearing.
County charter requires the administrator to prepare a mid-year status report on the budget.
Jones’ figures showed $29.7 million in projected revenues in the general fund — and $31.6 million in projected expenditures — for a net loss of $1.97 million in the county’s all-important general fund reserve.
That still leaves $9.5 million in the reserve.
Jones said the $9.5 million rainy day fund is a “very solid and substantial reserve balance to carry forward for a county of our size.”
County policy requires a $6.5 million general fund reserve, but Jones said he would be uncomfortable lowering the reserve below $8 million. Reserves are used to respond to emergencies that may arise.
Reserves also spare the county from having to borrow money to make payroll between the twice-yearly lump sums of property tax income.
“The economy is performing pretty much as expected for the first six months of 2010,” Jones told the commissioners.
“Sales tax collections are up 5.2 percent over 2009, property taxes are up 3.3 percent, excise taxes are up 18.4 percent.
“But interest income is down by 25.4 percent and private timber tax is down by $110,525 over the same time period in 2009.”
In the total budget, revenues outweighed expenditures $72.2 million to $69.4 million for a $2.8 million padding to the total reserve.
“As for the future, we believe the second half of the year will continue to trend up slightly, particularly as the dam removal project contract is awarded and initial staging begins,” Jones said, referring to the $308 million National Park Service project to remove the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams on the Elwha River from 2011 to 2014.
But, overall, Jones said it is “highly likely” that the county’s 2011 general fund will show a $2 million to $2.4 million deficit.
Under county charter, the administrator must present a balanced budget to the commissioners in September before a final budget is passed in early December.
Last year, Jones prepared a second budget in case Tim Eyman’s Initiative 1033 — which would have capped state, county and city revenues — had passed. County officials discussed a four-day work week, had the initiative passed.
After Tuesday’s hearing, Jones said it is possible that a four-day work week will be discussed in the 2011 budget season.
No public testimony was taken in a public hearing on the mid-year budget report, which is posted on the county’s website, www.clallam.net.
Click on the commissioners’ home page and download the “complete meeting packet” from the “meeting agenda and minutes” page.
Hard copies of the mid-year budget are available at the commissioners’ office on the main floor of the Clallam County Courthouse, 223 E. Fourth St., Port Angeles.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
