$10 million on tap for public safety

MONTROSE — Public safety needs in Montrose County could be funded at about $10.1 million, if the proposed 2009 budget is approved.

Public safety needs that are at least in part funded by the county include the sheriff’s and district attorney’s offices; the coroner, rural health clinics, fire protection and ambulance service.

The bulk of the proposed funding goes to the Montrose County Sheriff’s Office, which is slated to receive more than $2 million from public safety sales tax revenues and more than $6 million from the general fund.

Estimated revenue for the county’s public safety fund stands at around $5.2 million, according to a preliminary revenue sheet. Because some of that money is derived from the public safety improvement sales tax, which has not been collected for the entirety of 2008, the estimate is not absolute.

The public safety fund includes $4.1 million from the public safety tax approved last November, and other revenue — such as law enforcement contracts with Nucla and Naturita — investment income and airport security, totaling $104,500, and a transfer of $1,040,500 from the general fund.

The transfer is to supplement the public safety fund, Commissioner Allan Belt said. “We didn’t get nearly as much (sales tax revenue) as expected,” he said.

According to the ballot language for the tax measure, the MCSO is to receive 70 percent of public safety tax revenue, with other public safety entities to divvy up the remaining 30 percent.

The sheriff’s office is also due to receive a separate general fund contribution — a proposed $6.4 million, up over 2008’s general fund allocation of $6.1 million.

“We have increased the amount of general fund money that we’re giving the sheriff’s office,” Commissioner Bill Patterson said.

The shortfall in public safety tax revenues — due in part to a weakening economy — meant reductions in expenditures for the MCSO had to be made. Patterson said the county reduced the hiring of patrol and jail deputies.

“We already made the cuts there,” he said.

Part of the reason the county pushed for a sales tax was to increase the number of MCSO staff. Patterson said that despite the shortfalls, there are more deputies working than before, just not as many as had been hoped for.

“We are not collecting what we anticipated,” Belt said. “That has left us to do some adjustments. We have increased the general fund contribution.”

County policy also requires an operating reserve for each county fund. For the public safety sales tax, the operating reserve of 25 percent will be divided over two years. The proposed 2009 budget includes, therefore, an operating reserve of 12.5 percent, plus a reserve under the Taxpayers Bill of Rights.