Lake County uses all of it’s contingency funds to cover 2022 budget shortfalls

The Lake County Commission met Thursday to take care of some of the county’s year-end business for 2022.  

Commissioners approved a contingency transfer resolution, which transfers money from the county’s contingency fund to help cover several departments’ budget shortfalls for 2022.  Auditor Paula Barrick said that this year, all 175-thousand dollars of the county’s contingency fund needed to be used.  She said working out the budget for the year wasn’t easy.  

A couple of the departments where contingency funds had to be used were the Sheriff’s Office and the County Jail.  Just more than 85-thousand dollars of contingency was transferred to the Jail budget.  Sheriff Tim Walburg explained to commissioners that juvenile housing was one of the main reasons for the budget shortfall.

Walburg said that medical services for the jail is another area that’s hard to accurately budget for.

Close to 57-thousand dollars needed to be transferred from the county’s contingency fund to cover the Sheriff’s Office budget.  Walburg said the largest portion of that budget shortfall was due to vehicle maintenance, especially with damage done to vehicles by the May derecho and other storms.  

Walburg said that this year had probably been the worst year in all his years as Sheriff for his department’s budget.  

Also on Thursday, county commissioners approved a resolution for operating transfers for 2022 totaling just more than one-million dollars for the Highway Bridge Fund and 77-hundred dollars for the Dive Team fund.  

Auditor Paula Barrick told commissioners Thursday that the county’s general fund surplus is at just more than 21-percent.  

 

December 30, 2022