PORT TOWNSEND –Budget projections for Jefferson County’s general fund, which finances most of the county’s mandated services, show the county will run out of financial reserves by 2009.
During a commissioners’ retreat this week at the Jefferson County Library in Port Hadlock, Allen Sartin, director of central services, presented county budget projections through 2015.
His projections show the gap between revenue and expenditures in the general fund widening as years progress.
The 2006 general fund shows revenue at $12.5 million and expenditures at about $13 million, a deficit of $460,614.
The difference is supplemented by county reserves, which for 2006 amounts to $1.35 million.
By 2009, general fund revenue is projected at $13.97 million and $14.98 million in expenditures, a deficit of about $1 million.
By that year, working capital will be exhausted and there will be a deficit of $213,138, according to the projections.
“It’s not the end of the world; it’s not a catastrophe,” said Sartin.
“The projections are not absolute. They will give us some direction when we go to work on the 2007 budget.”
Sartin said he established the projections by looking at historical information and taking into account financial trends.
“The projections show that we’re going into deficit spending by 2009,” said county Administrator John Fischbach.
“It’s a deficit that’s ever growing. Obviously we’re going to need to make changes.”
