Nov. 7--The hallways of the Buchanan County Courthouse seem a bit brighter these days, and the unseasonably warm, sunny days can't claim all the credit.

The county's budget situation has morphed from untenable to merely unenviable during the past two months, thanks to advances on a couple of fronts.

The county has been searching for a new health insurance provider the past two months, and the best offer it found involved a 27 percent increase in costs. At the same time, the county's sales tax revenue figures from August were $200,820 below 2008, leaving the general fund $313,547 behind its approximately $6 million budget.

In short, the county needed a bunch more cash, while simultaneously facing a projected 6.5 percent revenue shortfall.

The first measure of relief came last week, when the commission opted for self-insured health care, which won't cost the county any more than its current coverage. Essentially, the county will deposit money into an account each month for its employees' medical bills. The county is insured for medical procedures that exceed $75,000. The gamble, of course, is that claims spike, and the county doesn't have the funds to cover the increase.

But only nine months in the past three years have the county's claims exceeded its premiums, and commissioners are confident they can bank what money isn't spent into a reserve that should provide a safety net.

"Any time you deal with insurance, it's going to be a risk," said Ron Hook, Western District commissioner. "We feel like the county will build up enough reserves that if we do have those (increases) one, two three years down the road, we can cushion that."

The second measure of relief arrived this week with November's sales tax revenues for October. For only the third time since March, the county brought in more money than its budget called for. November's sales tax revenue reached $349,942 -- $67,914 more than budgeted. That leaves the county's deficit at $266,961 for the year, and auditor Nancy Nash is hopeful one more solid month will leave the county only 5 percent short of its approximate $6 million general fund budget.

"This looks good," Ms. Nash said. "Last month was awful."

Ms. Nash has asked each office to trim 5 percent from its budget for 2009. While the uptick in crime that comes with a down economy limits the amount the prosecutor's office, the sheriff and the courts can cut, the rest of the offices have done a good job of keeping costs down, according to Ms. Nash.

"It delays the cash problem," she said.

The county's carryover revenue from 2008 should cover just about all of the budget shortfall this year, meaning the commission shouldn't have to dip into the emergency fund. So with health insurance costs suppressed and the sales tax revenue deficit leveling out, the county could at least emerge from 2009 relatively unscathed.

"We just rode the recession out, and I hope this is the end of it," Mr. Hook said. "We're hoping that the sales tax revenues come in a little stronger the first part of next year. That will definitely give us a little more daylight to work with."

But with no rollover revenue for next year, the county is banking on the economy to rebound and bring with it an increase in sales tax revenue. Ms. Nash stressed that when the economy recovers, it's crucial for the county to establish a reserve fund to avoid a similar crisis in the future.

"We could've been ready for this," Ms. Nash said of the county's financial situation heading into the 2000s. "If we continue to watch our expenses like everyone has been, I have no doubt that our economy is going to turn around. We'll be back up to our levels that we were. All we have to do is plan."

R.J. Cooper can be reached

at rjcooper@npgco.com.

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