By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The new Ellis County administrator reported Monday night the county financial outlook has drastically improved during the last year.
Department directors and elected officials were able to end the year under budget collectively by $1,513,865, Darin Myers, county administrator, told county commissioners at their meeting Monday night.
Revenues came in just a little more than $1 million more than what was projected.
Combined, Myers called that $2.5 million in the right direction for the county's budget.
In addition, county voters passed two 1/4-cent sales taxes. These will be used to help sustain the Ellis County Emergency Medical Services and Health Departments at current levels and to fund a $5.5 million general obligation bond for road improvements.
The hope is the bond will remove some of financial burden off the public works department.
The two sales taxes are set to sunset in 2030.
The county also dropped the State Employee Health Insurance Program in favor of a partially self-funded system in cooperation with FCMI Inc. Early projections show $600,000 or more in annual savings, Myers said.
The pandemic resulted in budget savings as a result of decreased county activity. Most departments had reductions in services, temporary changes in operational practices, less travel, less training and other associated costs, Myers said in his report.
The county had significant savings in fuel as prices dipped during the pandemic. Public works alone has a $400,000 fuel budget.
"As we look now, with the sales tax in place with the county departments holding their budgets for many years in a row, with the change in health insurance, the financial forecast for Ellis County is significantly better," Myers said.
"We have a lot of opportunities to do some of these road projects we're looking at, maintain good benefits for our employees without breaking the bank and sustain where we are at in the next 10 years."
Last year, when the county started talking about its 10-year budget outlook, it had many long red lines at the bottom of its budget, indicating shortfalls, Myers said.
The county would have had a budget gap starting in 2024. Significant cuts in services and in employees would have been required, Myers said.
Commission Chairman Butch Schlyer said he thought the budget forecast looks considerably better than when he came on the commission a couple of years ago.
"It was looking real bad at that point," he said. "Without that sales tax, I don't know how we would be putting budgets together, but it would just be ugly.
"We still have the burden to make good decisions going forward."
By 2032, projections show the county back at a budget gap, Myers said.
"I am not saying we need to raise taxes, but when we look at our future in 10 years ..." Myers said. "If taxes stay the same, everyone in this room knows everything we do costs more — fuel will go up, cost of a grader will go up, ambulances go up, cost of payroll goes up. All costs of contractual services and materials will continue to increase."
The county continues to need to complete road and bridge projects even beyond those that are being funded by the recent bond, he said. Ellis County has 198 bridges, 1,400 miles of roads — 140 miles of which are asphalt roads.
The public works building is also in need of major repairs. The employees have marked the second story, so they know where to place buckets when it rains.
The HVAC systems at the Ellis County Administration Building, as well as the Law Enforcement Center need repairs.
"It is very clear that we cannot sustain, even with the sales tax, where we are at now," Myers said. "We can't go out and start increasing budgets and improving services.
"We need, in my opinion, to continue to focus on the services we do now and do them as best as we can."