From the Lafayette Journal & Courier:
The Tippecanoe County Council’s budget hearings for the 2014 spending plan are months away, but the process already has started for department heads.
By July 22, each department should submit its proposed plan to the auditor’s office, Tippecanoe County Auditor Jennifer Weston said.
“Then begins the process of we, our council, meeting with department heads to hear what’s behind their numbers, then to prepare for the September open hearings,” council President Roland Winger said Tuesday.
Decisions to cut, add or alter budgets, however, will not be made during those conversations, Winger said
“We came in with a surprisingly positive cash balance in general fund,” Winger said of January’s unexpected $7.5 million in uncommitted cash reserves or unspent money from the 2012 budget.
Last year, the council approved spending $38.4 million from the general fund during its September hearings.
Weston isn’t necessarily optimistic of what the county revenue might look like in 2014.
“In a preliminary look,” she said, “I’m seeing some revenues going down. For the most part, I’m seeing some revenue concerns.”
The county optional income tax might increase, she said, but that still is an unknown factor. The county, just as every other Indiana county, will be losing inheritance tax revenue, which is going away completely.
“That for us, in the past, has been a $300,000 line item,” Weston said. “It’s $100,000 this year, and we’re expecting nothing for next year.”
“On the flip side,” Winger said, “we do know we have an increase in the … motor vehicle highway funding based on the new legislation, so we got a $1.3 million bump. There’s a positive revenue thing, but then there are these others.
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http://www.jconline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2013306110036
