With the end of the year steadily approaching, the Carbon County Commissioners tackled the proposed 2022 budget over the course of two meetings that were hosted in November and December.
At the November meeting, County Clerk/Auditor Seth Marsing went over the total amount budgeted for each fund. Fund 10, the general fund, was budgeted for $16,526,000. In comparison to the 2021 budget which was $16,538,000, which means that there is a small decrease.
There are also some increases that were made to the budget, such as a $90,000 increase in the budget fund 10 for insurance renewal, which is year over year’s insurance renewal to maintain the same. There is also an increase of $50,000 to cover the secretary for the public defenders, which is covered by a grant.
There is a $60,000 increase in maintenance that was for an extra maintenance person and one of the ideas behind this is, if a maintenance person can cover outside of several buildings, that will see savings in the long run.
There is about $1.9 million budgeted for the AARPA funds. That amount was received in 2021 and the county is meant to receive the same amount for 2022. Marsing continued by detailing an increase for employees in fund 10. Commissioner Larry Jensen explained the need for this by stating that, with the inflation all are dealing with, there is now a need to increase.
Commissioner Jensen also stated that there is no questions that the employees of the county deserve increases in order to help catch up with inflation. Commissioner Casey Hopes also stated that he has appreciation to department heads for staying within their budgets.
“I just want to express my appreciation for our department heads and for the work that they do,” Commissioner Hopes said.
The public hearing was then opened, though there were no community members present at the meeting to give comment. At the December meeting, which was hosted on Wednesday evening, the commissioners approved the budget for the upcoming year.