Davis approves reduced 2009 budget

FARMINGTON — The 2009 budget for Davis County passed easily Wednesday night, putting the county on a path to spend $94.4 million in the coming year.

That's a decrease of $400,000 from the 2008 budget. And 2009 will not see a county-imposed property tax increase.

Commissioners turned down $10.5 million in requests from department heads during the budget planning process this year. Those requests will have to wait for another time, said Commissioner Louenda Downs.

"I know there have been many requests for important items that have been deferred," Downs said.

Commissioners have asked department heads to make do with basically the same operating budget as 2008.

For 2009, the county will put $1 million into a capital projects fund for future construction projects on county buildings.

Part of the ability to do that comes from $1.5 million the county is saving in insurance costs after personnel director Mel Miles successfully renegotiated the county's insurance plans for employees.

Even with the smaller budget, county employees will receive a 3.5 percent cost-of-living adjustment, and 11 full-time equivalent positions will be hired in 2009, though not all of them are funded by the county, and some are conversions of part-time into full-time jobs.

For at least the past two years, the public hearing for the upcoming budget year has seen swarms of residents in attendance, some making reasoned arguments and some just venting. Previous meetings have lasted hours.

Wednesday, county officials outnumbered residents four to one. And though one comment was made, it had more to do with property taxes instead of the upcoming budget. The 2009 budget was approved within 20 minutes.

Earlier in the year, commissioners had been expected to increase property taxes for unincorporated county residents to help make up the difference in tax revenue mistakenly given to counties by the Utah State Tax Commission.

About $8.7 million in sales-tax revenue from telecommunications companies was taken from Utah counties and given to cities, which were supposed to receive the money in the first place, but it was sent to the counties after telecommunications providers incorrectly reported their taxes. The bad math had been going on since 2005.

Because the counties are still in negotiations with the state tax commission, Davis County can still count on that revenue for 2009.

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E-mail: jdougherty@desnews.com