County Board discusses options in transferring funds

Monday night the Saline County Board met at the Saline County Courthouse to discuss, with their officeholders, ways in which they can secure funds to alleviate budget needs.

Jan. 6 State's Attorney Mike Henshaw addressed the board in reference to the budget cuts that were being proposed by the board. The board then decided by vote to look into ways to secure funds for the officeholder.

"Mike has made a valid case," said Joe Jackson, head of the Budget Committee. "He needs more money."

Discussion arose in favor of possibly seeing if the offic holders might suggest early retirement with some of their employees, to free up some money. That notion was quickly shot down by Jackson.

"It does not benefit us to offer early retirement," said Jackson. "If we did not already owe the pension fund (IMRF) then that would work."

Bob Oglesby, head of the Farm and Land Use Committee, suggested using money from the Harco Road Fund. This suggestion would mean borrowing money from a trust in order to make ends meet but paying it back over time. Borrowing money, in general, has been proposed in the past. Carey Harbison has said, "The board won't borrow money." But now that time is running out, this could be an option to move toward.

"We are looking at some major issues down the road. I know no one takes this lightly, but right now we need a budget," said Oglesby. "I think we are at the point where we make a motion to borrow the money from the Harco Road Fund to shore this budget up and start figuring a way to get this worked out down the road."

The third and most viable option, according to the County Board, would be to borrow money from a fund housed in the county clerk's office that is set aside to pay for computer upgrades and maintenance.

"The board has every right to look and see if that is our money, this will increase the money on down the road too. By divvying up the funds," said Danny Ragan, County Treasurer. "That's $300,000 that has been there for six or seven years that hasn't been spent."

County Clerk Kim Buchanan has stood her ground on the matter saying the money is covered under a state statute.

"I have mandated upgrades, too," said Buchanan. "That fund can only be spent on certain things."

But the board thinks that the amount in the fund is excessive and would benefit from borrowing some to alleviate budget woes.

"The county is hurting, and we have one office (county clerk) that has gobbled up $3-400,000 dollars," said Jackson."I think that money is the County Board's."

Some officeholders are concerned about their staffing. In order to make the cuts proposed, the offices may have to suspend any hiring in the event of an employee leaving, or push for early retirement.

"I know that if I lose many more people it is going to affect public safety," Saline County Sheriff Keith Brown said.

According to Jackson, the Saline County Detention Center has been slowly declining in funds since Sheriff Brown's election, and seems to blame his office for the position the board is in right now.

"We wouldn't be here today if we had the $400,000 that had been collected before you (Brown) took office," Jackson said.

According to Jackson, the jail had been a regular contributor of $400,000 in revenue annually, but since Sheriff Brown took office that number has slowly declined to only $125,000 in 2015, an estimated difference of $275,000.

The meeting came to a close with decisions made by the board to look into securing funds from the Computer Fund held by the county clerk. Questions arose about the legality of the move, and commissioned Henshaw to look into the board's legal right in the situation.

"This isn't solving the whole problem," said Jeff Murrie, head of the Landfill Committee. "We need to look at what needs to be done down the road, this is just a Band-aid on a much bigger wound."