PORT ANGELES — While it’s too early to make firm projections, Clallam County so far is keeping up with its 2016 budget, County Administrator Jim Jones told commissioners this week.
Jones on Monday presented a four-month budget performance review comparing actuals to budget, saying county finances at the end of April were “a little bit better than we expected.”
“My statement to you is that expenditures are right on track, and revenue is, as good as we can estimate it, also doing well,” Jones said at the commissioners’ work session.
Clallam County budgeted to spend $2.94 million in general fund reserves to cover a projected deficit in its $37.1 million general fund for day-to-day operations.
“So far, we’ve actually added $737,834 to the reserve balance,” Jones said.
Jones cautioned that revenues at the end of April are “problematic” because half of the annual property tax collections are in.
Property tax, he added, is Clallam County’s largest source of revenue.
“We’re not going to get any more property tax, or very little, for the next couple of months,” Jones said.
“So we’re ahead of the game on the revenue side.”
Expenditures in the general fund are more reliable and easier to track than revenue because personnel accounts for most spending, Jones said.
“We’re doing fine on the expenditures,” he added.
With a 33.3 percent target at the end of April, general fund expenditures were tracking at 29.1 percent of the annual budget.
General fund revenues were at 33.7 percent of a budgeted $34.2 million, according to a spreadsheet prepared by Jones and Budget Director Debi Cook.
The budget performance review was requested in January by Commissioner Bill Peach and supported by Commissioners Mike Chapman and Mark Ozias.
The early glance will be followed by a thorough midyear budget review that commissioners receive every July.
“Everything kind of catches up at the midyear,” Jones said.
Jones, an 11th-year county administrator, has assembled a decade’s worth of data that tracks mid-year actual expenses and revenues by department and fund compared to the next year’s budget.
“We do a rolling five-year average adjusted for any anomalies, and we have a really good projection that works pretty well,” Jones said of the midyear review.
Clallam County budgets by department in the general fund and by fund for special revenue, capital projects, enterprise and internal services.
The total county budget for general and other funds is $100.2 million for 2016.
Chapman and Ozias voted in January, with Peach opposed, to end a 0.2 percent sales tax break that last year’s board enacted.
The 8.2-percent tax rate for goods purchased in unincorporated areas was restored to 8.4 percent effective April 1.
Sales tax revenue is now lagging 14 percent behind last year’s collections.
Jones predicted that sales tax would catch up to the budget in June and the county would have “less than a $2.9 million deficit at the end of the year.”
“How much that will be?” Jones asked rhetorically.
“We’ll have a much better look after June 30th.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
