{"id":1315605,"date":"2019-10-14T06:00:32","date_gmt":"2019-10-14T12:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=989072"},"modified":"2019-10-14T06:00:32","modified_gmt":"2019-10-14T12:00:32","slug":"garfield-county-budget-still-hurting-from-oil-and-gas-decline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/garfield-county-budget-still-hurting-from-oil-and-gas-decline\/","title":{"rendered":"Garfield County budget still hurting from oil and gas decline"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Garfield County\u2019s proposed 2020 budget is balanced and fiscally conservative, according to financial staff.<\/p>\n

But in order to complete important projects, the commissioners may draw down financial reserves \u2013 as they have for the past several years.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s budget planning has \u201cbeen a much more difficult set of circumstances in terms of revenues,\u201d County Manager Kevin Batchelder told the board of county commissioners Oct. 7. \u201cTrying to keep things at a status-quo level, if you will, has just been more difficult than past years given our revenue forecast.\u201d<\/p>\n

The revenue problems can be attributed to declining property taxes from oil and gas development, according to financial staff.<\/p>\n

Property tax revenues, which include taxes on oil and gas
\ncompanies, dropped nearly 30 percent from 2016 to 2017. While they increased
\nslightly in 2019, the county expects next year\u2019s tax revenue will be nearly $10
\nmillion lower than 2016 figures.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn recent years we faced the challenge of a significant reduction in property tax revenues due to the decline in oil and gas production,\u201d Batchelder said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor 2020, we\u2019re projecting an increase of approximately $4 million in total revenues, including an estimate of an additional $1.5 million in property taxes, and an additional $1.5 million in sales taxes,\u201d Batchelder said.<\/p>\n

Commissioners have already expressed concern<\/a> about the recent decline in new oil and gas leases this year.<\/p>\n

As county finance director Theresa Wagenman explained, the county doesn\u2019t see revenue from the oil and gas industry until two years after the companies make their profit.<\/p>\n

Still, the proposed operating budget is balanced, meaning projected revenues cover the standard government services.<\/p>\n

The proposed budget would dip into reserves solely for capital projects, building improvements and some major roadwork.<\/p>\n

The capital expenditures in the proposed budget total $14.5
\nmillion, but that could be reduced later in the budget process.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are suggesting the commissioners take a serious look at
\nreducing this amount based on capital prioritization,\u201d Batchelder told the
\nboard Monday.<\/p>\n

The capital projects include replacing the Glenwood Springs courthouse roof, the realignment of Red Hill Road in Carbondale, rebuilding Parachute Creek County Road 215, Sunlight tower replacement, among other projects.<\/p>\n

Over the past several years, the county has drawn down
\nreserve funds, which were rather extensive five years ago.<\/p>\n

Under the proposed 2020 budget, the county\u2019s reserves will
\nbe at their lowest in a decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are projecting the lowest fund balance reserve level
\nsince 2009, when it was about $89 million,\u201d Wagenman said.<\/p>\n

The state recommends that counties have at least two months worth of unassigned reserve funding.<\/p>\n

The county will have enough for less than four months of
\noperation in its general fund by the end of 2020, if no changes are made to the
\nbudget.<\/p>\n

On  the whole, however, \u201cthings are looking OK for 2020,\u201d Batchelder said. \u201cFor the last 4 years, we\u2019ve been able to establish fiscally conservative budgets, and in 2020 we continue this trend. The operations budget as proposed is balanced in terms of expenditures to revenues, and we\u2019ve been able to maintain our service levels.\u201d<\/p>\n

tphippen@postindependent.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Garfield County\u2019s proposed 2020 budget is balanced and fiscally conservative, according to financial staff. But in order to complete important projects, the commissioners may draw down financial reserves \u2013 as they have for the past several years. This year\u2019s budget planning has \u201cbeen a much more difficult set of circumstances in terms of revenues,\u201d County […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1315605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-06 19:01:29","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1315605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1315605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1315605\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1315605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1315605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1315605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}