The Warren County Commission Tuesday adopted the 2012 budget that proposes spending $4,998,552 in reserves. The new budget also projects to reduce expenditures by $2,490,926 compared to the previous year. Commissioners have projected to spend $16,459,516 in 2012. The projected revenues from all county funds this year is $11,460,994. The county is beginning the year with $6,960,995.23 in reserves. Last year, revenues and expenditures in the 2011 budget stood at $11,182,841 and $18,950,442 respectively. Commissioners voted 3-0 to approve the 2012 budget at the end of a public hearing Tuesday that was attended by numerous county employees and a handful of residents. County officials attribute the decrease in proposed spending this year to the willingness of the various county departments to cut expenses and also because the majority of the $6.5 million administration building project has been paid. That project is being funded entirely out of the capital improvement fund. Construction on the new county facility, which will house all non-court related offices, is on track to be completed by April. Presiding Commissioner Arden Engelage offered concerns about reducing the county's reserves, but also was optimistic that similar to past years, the county could continue to keep a comfortable reserve balance and one that ends 2012 much higher than initial budget projections. "I don't like the budget, but I think it's what we needed to do," Engelage said. He explained that some of the decrease in budget reserves is tied to a decision to give most employees either a 2-percent or 25-cent hourly pay increase, whichever is greater, and to continue paying 100 percent of an employee's health care premiums after rates increased nearly 25 percent. The health care premiums will cost the county an additional $114,879.48, in 2012. The budget for the various county funds is as follows: general revenue ($3,540,178 in revenues and $4,539,531 in expenditures); law enforcement ($3,014,200 in revenues and $3,234,863 in expenditures); capital improvements ($633,849 in revenues and $2,558,063 in expenditures); road and bridge ($3,111,825 in revenues and $4,078,067 in expenditures); road and bridge capital ($102,000 in revenues and $460,000 in expenditures); assessment ($531,445 in revenues and $533,353 in expenditures); and federal grants ($173,539 in revenues and $173,539 in expenditures). The county is expecting to collect $1,283,000 from each of the three half-cent sales taxes (general revenue, law enforcement and capital improvement). Each of the three funds generated $1,261,138.97 in sales tax revenue in 2011 and $1,177,841.56 in 2010. Treasurer Gene Cornell said he projected a "conservative" increase due to some economic development growth within the county. "That leads me to believe, unless somebody punches a hole in the balloons, we will have a sales tax increase this year," Cornell said. "I would be less than honest if I thought otherwise. Look at what's going on." Resident Presents Opposing Viewpoint Tuesday's public hearing did include some verbal exchanges between attendees as resident Wanda Thomas, a regular at the annual budget hearings, fired off questions to the commissioners and also questioned different aspects of the budget, including a decision to continue paying 100 percent of an employee's health care premiums. She disagreed with the commission's decision to propose spending 66 percent of the county's reserve and questioned why the tax rate for the general revenue fund has increased by 71 percent in the past five years. Thomas stated that the county was passing the health care rate increase onto taxpayers when employees could be picking up a portion of the expense. "Our tax that pays this has gone up," Thomas said. "You can't tell me that is not part of the cost. You are passing that cost onto us. You're getting them a raise, they can pay the increase." Thomas later added, "We do have good county employees and they do try to save. If you tell them we have to raise taxes to cut back, they will do that. When I first came here, way too much money was in reserves. Now we have a reserve less than 10 percent of our budget and that concerns me." Northern District Commissioner Dan Hampson, however, defended the increases in the general revenue tax levy by stating that the rate remains much lower than in Lincoln and Montgomery counties. County officials also explained the tax rate is determined by a formula based on sales tax revenue and assessed valuation. The county has proposed decreasing the tax rates for the general revenue fund and road and bridge fund. The commissioners have proposed setting the general revenue levy at 11.03 cents per $100 of assessed valuation and a rate of 16.17 cents for the road and bridge fund. In 2011, the tax rates were 12.90 cents for general revenue and 17.48 cents for road and bridges. At one point, Engelage drew applause from county employees in attendance when he defended the commission's decision to continuing paying the healthcare premiums. It was a turnaround of sorts as commissioners had been criticized in recent months during discussions on insurance and employee pay raises. "We have to sit here and juggle between the taxpayers and our people," Engelage said. "I think we did a damn good job this year. . .We are all taxpayers. I don't want to see the county go into deficit but I want to help our people." Thomas did win one argument during Tuesday's budget hearing. After the budget message was read, she asked commissioners to delete a portion stating that this year's pay raise was "to show their appreciation and thank the employees for their hard work and for sticking with the county during the tough times." Thomas said a "thank you is a gratuitous thing and that's not a part of county government." After several minutes of discussion, commissioners relented and agreed to delete that part of the sentence. Other Budget Notes Of the $3,540,178 appropriated to be spent from general revenue, funds have been set aside to purchase equipment for the county buildings, copies and recording of the updated zone order, a pallet stacker, a lawn mower with a grass catcher, and a portable storage building, The county also will transfer $490,000 to the law enforcement fund from general revenue and as allocated $103,605 to purchase five law enforcement vehicles. The county will use the $2,558,063 allocated from the capital improvement fund to finish paying for the administration building, remodel the maintenance room in the courthouse into a jail dorm and the commission chambers into a new courtroom, complete a sewer pretreatment project to block garbage and other items from entering the Warrenton sewer system, updated the security system for the jail and hallway, and install a web-based energy management heating and cooling system for the courthouse and annex building. With $4,078,067 from the road and bridge fund, the county plans to purchase a 1-ton pickup truck and a grader with a front attachment, participate in the study for a new Missouri River bridge, build a new bridge on Powerline Road. Also included from the capital improvement sales tax is funds allocated to pave 4.75 miles of county roads this year.