WHEATLAND – The final operating budget for Platte County for fiscal year 2024-2025 was approved by commissioners Steve Shockley, Kayla Mantle and Ian Jolovich last week. The final appropriation …
This item is available in full to subscribers.
To continue reading, you will need to either log in to your subscriber account, below, or purchase a new subscription.
Please log in to continue |
WHEATLAND – The final operating budget for Platte County for fiscal year 2024-2025 was approved by commissioners Steve Shockley, Kayla Mantle and Ian Jolovich last week. The final appropriation necessary to keep all the departments in the county running smoothly is $17,715,075.10. Of that, $11,565,356.96 will be carried over from the end of fiscal year 2024 with $5,943,356.19 committed to the budget ($724,000 of this portion is for reserve funds for emergency operation of the government); an estimated $8,759.049.84 in revenue is anticipated, leaving a requirement to levy $2,603,669.07 in property tax with a 10.41 mill levy. Additionally, a 1.59 mill levy is assessed for property in the county to comply with the state statute to fund the library, which is a repository for researchable archives and access to learning materials and information for all citizens.
“There’s $2.6 million in property taxes…I think it’s interesting we raise less than 400,000 (6.5 percent) to fund the library. People don’t know that,” chairman Shockley said.
County clerk explains of budget
In his official budget message, available to the public, county clerk Malcolm Ervin stated the goal of the budget is to “spend as frugally as possible while delivering the highest level of service to the citizens of Platte County. Over the past few years, and this year will be no different, it has been difficult to ensure. Highest quality of service due to increased prices – especially fuel, tires and oil. However, no county has the ability to stretch a dollar like Platte.”
He described a $5,000 appropriation to Project Safe at the request of County Attorney Doug Weaver as one way to help victims keep updated on the status of their cases, without having to hire a part-time assistant. Ervin said the “modest funding to an existing agency” is an example of giving “top-tier service for a fiscally conservative price.”
This year’s budget is $1.3 million higher than last year, mostly due to the Phase II courthouse exterior remodel voted on by the citizens, with an expected $1 million anticipated to be collected this year. The other big-ticket item was a budgeted $600,000 to purchase two new snowplows.
Discussion during the meeting by commissioners revealed a fiasco with ordering plows previously from a company also taking orders from Wyoming Department of Transportation; after waiting for close to two years for delivery, the State of Wyoming received a small portion of what they had ordered, and Platte County was informed they were not going to get snowplows.
Guernsey Rural Fire District
The commissioners also approved the budget proposal presented by Guernsey Rural Fire District, after a discussion which included an explanation the expenditures can vary, depending on the number and expense of fires that can only be known after fire season.
Patty Small said if the fire season ends with a lighter load for the department, they would like to use some of their funds to purchase another garage building (which are designed to be moved as the need arises) to house their rigs during the winter to keep a more ready response time to their district.