Tentative county budget is balanced at $4 million-plus

Members of the Presque Isle County Board of Commissioners approved the tentative budget for 2004 Tuesday and set the tax millage rate at 5.74 mills. It?s the result of several meetings over the last few weeks, said chairman Allan Bruder. As the budget stands in mid-October, the figures come out balanced with expected expenditures and revenues in the general fund at $4,022,061.

The 2004 budget will be formally adopted in December. Tuesday?s statutory meeting was scheduled to conduct a public hearing. One significant change in the budget for next year will be the removal of the County Development Commission, Economic Development Corporation, and the Presque Isle County Tourism Council from the general fund.

THE THREE ORGANIZATIONS will be supported by the Local Unit Appropriations fund, which gets its revenue from the delinquent tax revolving fund, according to treasurer Pat Cornett. ?We?ve been transferring funds into the general fund and we?ve been transferring them right out again,? said finance committee member Don Field. ?I think it?s a very good idea. It does inflate the general fund budget. This is an actual true picture of where this money came from and where it went to.? ?I think it?s kind of silly to transfer the money in and have the budget all out of whack,? Bruder added. ?The budget will balance if you take those two things out and fund them directly from the tax fund. The budget is virtually balanced.?

With the move by the board, the appropriations fund shrinks from $534,147 to $478,814 Museum appropriations and the PI Soil Conservation District also will be funded from the LUAF if the budget is accepted as is.

?THE BUDGET will be balanced and the auditors like that better than transferring revenue,? said Bruder. The only comment from the audience during the discussion came from Bearinger Township supervisor Dick Mowers who is concerned about animal control. ?I?ve talked to other counties and they have said increased activity means increased fines,? said Mowers. ?It becomes more self-supporting.?

?We?ve been in a period of research, checking other counties and what their ordinance says,? said Field. The treasurer and the sheriff have been appointed to a committee to come up with an animal control ordinance. It is expected to be presented to the board by the end of the year. ?We need something with a little more bite in it,? Bruder said, ?no pun intended.?

THE COMMISSIONERS are trying to address an increase in dog attacks, including one incident when a woman south of Onaway had her shorts ripped off when two pit bulls attacked her on a rural road. Dog license fees may be increased

and there?s been some discussion about hiring an additional animal control officer. As part of the tentative budget, travel expenses for commissioners to attend conventions or other meetings were lowered. Bruder said the funds had best served first-time commissioners.

Bruder said they lowered other ?unnecessary things? when they went through the budgets. Field said department heads were ?told to hold the line and they pretty much did.? There is $75,000 in the contingency fund for pay raises that could come from a potential deal with one of the unions, or anything else that comes up in the middle of the year.

The increase from 5.5 mills to 5.74 mills — the maximum allowed — comes mainly from another cut in state revenue sharing. ?I don?t know what we?re going to do next year,? said Cornett.