Wages, benefits largest cost for county departments

The heavy lifters in the county presented their budgets to the board of supervisors during budget hearings Tuesday afternoon. For the majority of the departments in the county, increases in wages and benefits made up the largest bump in requests for the next fiscal year.

Conservation started the afternoon session with a line item request for a new skid loader for the department as a part of the $1,825,809 budget. Director Keri Van Zante said she has been trying to find a more efficient way to manage the county’s growing bike trail system.

“We have to figure out how to take care of our bike trails, the tractors are too big,” Van Zante said. “As miles start racking up on trails, we have to figure out an efficient way to take care of them.”

Supervisor Doug Cupples suggested working with maintenance to find the right piece of machinery for the job. He also brought up possibly sharing the equipment between departments.

The recorder’s office submitted a budget of $436,849, citing benefits as the main increase for the department. Recorder Denise Allan said she is also expecting an increase in revenue due to boat renewals falling in 2019.

Like the recorder’s office, Jasper County Sheriff John Halferty said the biggest expense in the $5,400,121 budget is for wages and benefits. The office has a 13 percent increase for insurance and an estimated 2.9 percent increase for employees. Additional costs shared by Halferty include uniforms for employees and vehicle costs.

Revenue for the department has been on the rise due to the increased number of inmates at the jail from Warren County.

“I was very conservative on revenue estimation,” Halferty said. “I think if things stay as they are now, we will be well above that number.”

He said while the dollars are here now, he has to plan on the revenue sources changing or disappearing in the coming years.

Jasper County Attorney Mike Jacobsen submitted a budget of $1,121,949 for the county attorney’s office. He also brought up the idea of hiring an intern for the office to assist, potentially during summer months.

“We get a lot of requests for internships, from law students from Newton,” Jacobsen said.

With a $781,674 budget, Jasper County Treasurer Doug Bishop announced a $175,000 return on revenue investments, an increase of $100,000 for the next year. Bishop said he was able to negotiate with banks the county conducts business with for increased rates of return.

“This is the fun part of the job,” Bishop said. “It is a good time for us to strike.”

Submitting the largest budget at $9,094,016 was the county engineer’s department. County engineer Russ Stutt has more than $9 million in revenue for the department.

Revenue sources include the road use tax at $4.7 million and county taxes at $2.3 million while expenditures are planned for granular surfacing at $1.75 million, equipment costs at $859,000 and fuel at more than $400,000.

Additional budgets submitted include veterans affairs at $181,726, IT at $663,645, board of health at $1,192,175, wellness at $10,000, Central Point Coordinator at $253,300, mental health at $846,650, Elderly Nutrition at $576,440 and Heart of Iowa Regional Transit at $34,000.

The board will hear from the auditor’s office, Progress Industries, GIS and discuss its budget at the regular meeting on Tuesday.

Contact Jamee A. Pierson at 641-792-3121 ext. 6534 or jpierson@newtondailynews.com