Auditor proposes $93.2M county budget

Plan includes 2% pay raise for full-time county employees

Cole County Courthouse
Cole County Courthouse

The Cole County Commission on Tuesday got its first look at the proposed 2021 county budget, which would grow by more than $5.2 million compared to 2020.

The proposed 2021 budget from Auditor Kristen Berhorst would be $93.2 million, which includes money carried forward from 2020.

The budget approved by the commission for 2020 was $88.8 million.

Berhorst said the budget includes a 2 percent cost-of-living pay raise for all 322 full-time employees of the county. Part-time employees would not get raises.

The proposed budget would add six additional positions in various departments. There would be a human resource director, a court marshal to serve the second associate circuit judge who will begin hearing cases in January, another legal secretary to work in the county prosecutor's office, a deputy auditor, a maintenance worker and another environmental health specialist at the health department who would be involved with inspections and permitting for on-site wastewater treatment systems, child care facilities and lodging facilities.

The proposed budget also includes an $1,800 pay adjustment for deputies in the sheriff's department. That would increase the starting deputy salary to $38,800.

Story continues below meeting video.

Berhorst projects the county's three half-cent sales taxes (capital improvements, law enforcement and EMS) will collect a total of $20,907,501.

"Sales taxes are nearly 44 percent of county revenue," Berhorst said.

Although they are expecting little, if any, additional growth next year in tax collections, Berhorst said the amount they are projecting for 2021 is up from the $19.5 million that was projected for 2020. This occurred despite the closing of many businesses during the first portion of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring.

"It was a surprise, and I don't know why we didn't take a hit," Berhorst said. "Boone County has taken a hit in their sales tax collections due to college students not being there like they normally would be."

Berhorst said the county hasn't spent everything they've budgeted over the past few years, so they have some pretty healthy reserves.

"In last year's budget, we had about $1.5 million in our general fund for capital projects," Berhorst said. "We didn't spend that. Because of the pandemic, we put a hold on doing things. Due to that and the growth in capital improvement sales tax, we have $3 million in the capital projects budget."

Capital projects generally refer to improvement work to county-owned facilities.

"We have some big projects on the horizon," Berhorst said. "We're doing a temporary fix for the new judge, but we need to figure out what the permanent fix is to house that court."

The commission did approve a $137,585 contract last month with GBH Builders to do some remodeling to create a courtroom and office space on the top floor in the Cole County Courthouse.

Berhorst also said the commission continues to look at what to do with the building and parking lot at 209 Adams St., which the county bought in May 2019. The cost to renovate the building has been estimated at $1.5 million.

"The old county jail (located in the rear of the county courthouse) is going to become an issue at some point because the roof is leaking, and there are other issues that need to be addressed," Berhorst said. "We're also going to have to address plumbing and electrical upgrades at the county courthouse. It may not be next year, but it's coming."

Meetings with county department heads to go over their budgets are scheduled for the first week of December. Berhorst said incoming Western District Commissioner Harry Otto has been sitting in on commission meetings and plans to be at the December budget meetings as he will take over the office at the beginning of January and will vote on whether to approve the budget.

"Right now, we have the vote on the budget scheduled for Jan. 6 because we have payroll and bills that have to be paid, but by state law, if you have one or more new commissioners coming on board, the budget wouldn't have to be approved until Jan. 30," Berhorst said.

The auditor's proposed budget will be on the county's website, colecounty.org.