Supervisors review budget

Glenn County supervisors received some good news during their mid-year budget report Tuesday, at least compared to some of the fiscal troubles of the past.

Still, the county is projected to be $79,000 further in the red than at the same time last year.

Finance Director Ed Lamb said the county is facing a $57,000 deficit in its general fund at the end of the 2012-13 fiscal year.

He said that compares to having a $22,000 balance in the general fund at the same time last year.

Some revenue projections are expected to be down slightly more than anticipated, Lamb added, but the actual deviations are not known at this time.

But he is not overly concerned.

"It should be pointed out that either amount represents less than two-tenths of 1 percent (0.2 percent) of total general and public safety funds budgeted."

He reported all county departments have been frugal in the spending and should be commended for their efforts.

Also, the general fund and public safety departments have only spent about 31 percent of their budgets at this point, Lamb said, but are expected to spend about 98 percent by the end of the fiscal year.

Lamb said the figures were based on everything submitted by the department heads who provided a variety of information about their budgets and spending.

These included summaries, line-by-line items and more depending on the department, he said.

His report said the public safety fund revenues are projected to be down by $300,000 from the budgeted amount in court security, and there is no corresponding reduction in budgeted expenses.

Lamb suggested the quarter-cent sales tax increase under Proposition 30 will not have a significant effect this fiscal year.

The board made no changes to the budget Tuesday and agreed to maintain the status quo for now as it seems to be working.

Report charts indicated the general fund working budget as of Dec. 31, 2012 was at $19.8 million with estimated revenues coming in at $19.6 million as of June 30 for 99 percent.

Expenses were listed at $22.3 million under the Dec. 31 working budget and estimated to be $21.8 million as of June 30 for 98 percent and an estimated reserve of 347,523.

The public safety budget had $14.4 million in its working figures as of Dec. 31 and was estimated to have $13.8 million or 96 percent by June 30, 2013 in revenues.

Its expenses started out at $13 million under the working budget and are estimated to reach $12.8 million or 98 percent by June 30.

The combined general fund and public safety funds were expected to have $34.2 million in revenues under the Dec. 31 working budget and end June 30 with $33.4 million.

Combined expenses were projected at $35.4 million on Dec. 31 and to end with $34.7 million or 98 percent by the end of June with a deficit of $56,977.