Cowley County commissioners will hold a special meeting at 9 a.m. Wednesday to make four amendments to the 2008 budget. The amendments will have no affect on property taxes, County Administrator Leroy Alsup said.
The commission wasn’t aware last spring and summer when working on the 2008 budget that they needed to have budgets for those particular funds.
"We are correcting that," he said.
The funds include the jail project, bond debt service and surplus sales tax funds. It’s not unusual for governing bodies to transfer money from one budget to another within the total budget.
Line item expenditures, such as maintenance and clerical in the appraiser’s office, may be adjusted with money from maintenance moved to the clerical line item, or from clerical to maintenance, within the appraiser’s budget. Monies can even be moved from one department to another, such as the clerk’s budget to the treasurer’s budget. But generally, money that has not gone through the budget process can not be spent.
"Normally we don’t budget twice. It shows up like we’re spending more money than we are," Alsup said.
Most entities tidy up bookkeeping chores at the end of the budget year. The county works with a calendar year budget, which begins Jan. 1.
"You have to have money in hand and spending or budgeting authority to spend public money," Alsup said "There is no difference in what we planned to spend in those four funds. We just didn’t adopt the budget authority (to do so)," he said.
The county actually received more operating funds than expected from the Department of Corrections for juvenile justice and community corrections. Some unexpected monies arrived as well in a lump sum payment for the company handling the inmate phone service, according to Alsup.
The commission has to give itself the budgeting authority to spend the money, and that’s what it will do during the special Wednesday meeting on the first floor of the courthouse. Commission meetings are always open to the public although Kansas Open Meetings law provides several reasons why governing bodies may meet in private.
The courthouse will close at 3 p.m. New Year’s Eve to close out the books. Offices will reopen Friday.
Cowley County District Court offices in both Winfield and Arkansas City will close at noon and reopen Friday.
