Published: July 02, 2009 10:33 pm      

Commissioners looking to save money

Holstein says hard decisions will have to be made, preliminary revenue estimates don’t match projected expenses

The Henderson County Commissioners will be doing some trimming this month during a series of 2010 budget workshops.

County Judge David Holstein said preliminary revenue estimates don’t match projected expenses and the Commissioners Court needs to make some hard decisions about where the funds will be used. The general fund revenue projection is just over $24,342,012 million, Holstein said. That figure could change when Henderson County Appraisal District Chief Appraiser Bill Jackson turns in the final property valuations later this month.

“The revenues for 2010 are going to be less than ‘09 and we’re really going to have to work hard to tighten up the budget,” Holstein said.

With the completion of the jail expansion project, the Sheriff’s office will see the largest increase in expenses. Although the county has contracted to receive $38 per inmate to house the out-of-county prisoners, the added number increases expenses. Right now Commissioners can only guess what the total number of prisoners will be in 2010.

“We are ramping up. We now have about 30 out-of-county inmates in,” Holstein said. “The number is increasing. No one expected that we were going to get 150 inmates the day we opened.”

Henderson County Sheriff Ray Nutt said the jail now has inmates from Smith and Freestone Counties.

“The number changes a little from day to day,” Nutt said.

The county also faces a 7.9 percent increase in health insurance premiums for employees and 7.7 percent for retirees. The increase will be offset somewhat by a $220,258 rebate from the insurer.

The county contracts for health insurance through the Texas Association of Counties Health and Benefits Pool.

Electrical service is another area due to increase. Although across the board consumption is down three percent, but increased fees will drive costs up about 30 percent, Holstein said.

He said the county will meet several times between July 13 and July 17 to complete the major work on the budget.

Department heads will be invited to meet with Commissioners during that time.