Commissioners slash proposed county fair budget

McCOOK, Neb. — Red Willow County commissioners saw a $39,000 increase in the budget proposed for 2018-19 by the fair board, so Monday morning they went looking for places to cut by a figure close to that.

By the end of their budget hearing, commissioners had slashed $26,900 from throughout the proposed budget and told the fair board secretary to find ways to shift more costs to the self-supporting Kiplinger arena complex budget and to keep all Kiplinger costs within the Kiplinger budget. “Tom (Kiplinger) did not want his places to cost the taxpayers,” commission chairman Earl McNutt said.

Commissioners, particularly McNutt, are upset — as he is almost every year — that what the fair board budgets and what it actually spends are so far apart. Line after line after line, he said, operations expenses are budgeted too high.

Fair board secretary Deb Lafferty told commissioners that she tries to keep her budget even from year to year, with money available “if something happens.” She said she budgets for “the unknowns” that might impact her budget.

McNutt told Lafferty, “You don’t know what the unknowns are. Pay for them if they happen. You’re not always going to have a full bucket of money available.”

Lafferty said, “I don’t want to run the budget so tight that we can’t keep up the fairgrounds.” Lafferty asked what happens if she runs out of money; she said she doesn’t want to not be able to pay the bills.

Commissioner Jacque Riener told her if that were to happen, she could take funds out of the Kiplinger budget.

In 2015-16, the fair board’s actual expense was $377,040. In 2016-17, the actual expense was lower, at $353,837.

In 2017-18, the fair board budgeted $686,831 and actually spent $436,011 (an increase of $82,174 over actual expenses in 2016-17).

For 2018-19, the fair board is proposing a budget of $725,178, up $38,347 from their budgeted expense for 2017-18, and $289,167 more than actual expenses in 2017-18.

Riener said the over-budgeting allows over-spending, and it has to stop.

Fair board secretary Deb Lafferty said she has already spent $34,877 out of the 2018-19 budget for these projects: $1,727 for lights on the midway; $7,325 for the 4-H Big Top expansion and $5,000 for sound in the Big Top; $1,025 for the 4-H scale; $15,000 for air conditioning in the 4-H Building and $5,000 for electrical wiring to hook-up the air conditioning. In February 2018, 4-H officials asked fair board members to make some improvements on the fairgrounds for 4-H’ers, who, after all, share the fairgrounds with all the visitors to the Kiplinger arenas.

None of the three air conditioning bids received in May 2018 included the cost of electrical wiring to hook up the air conditioning units, as per the bid request, commissioners said. McNutt said he thinks the bid request should have included that cost, making it much more apparent what the project would cost.

Lafferty said she is facing major repairs as all buildings on the fairgrounds are aging. An air conditioning company has told her for several years that the air conditioning at the Ag Complex is about on its last leg; she puts buckets under leaks in the roof of the Community Building.

McNutt said the three-year history of actual expenses does not support the fair board’s increases on many lines of its budget. As an example, the budget requests $52,000 for custodial part-time salaries. The actual expenses for three years are: $41,456, $41,646 and, last year, $43,434. Acknowledging that there is one more building (the enlarged Alice Building) on the fairgrounds than last year, commissioners cut the $52,000 figure but still left $50,000.

Similarly, on overtime/holiday pay, the budget request is $3,000. The three-year history is $1,138, $988, and, last year, $814. Commissioners cut the $3,000 figure to $2,000.

Cuts made by commissioners (and the three-year actual expense history) included:

Internet services: Request of $3,000, cut to $2,500. Past three years: $616, $1,907, and last year, $1,434.

Lights: Request of $20,000, cut to $15,000. Past three years: $13,987, $13,712, and last year, $12,541.

Water: Request of $8,500, cut to $7,500. Past three years: $5,079, $5,016, and last year, $5,085.

Heating fuels: Request of $10,000, cut to $8,000. Past three years: $5,443, $5,552 and last year, $6,928.

Meals: Request of $1,000, cut to $600. Past three years: $194, $167, and last year, $144.

Mileage allowance: Request of $4,500, cut to $3,500. Past three years: $1,815, $3,375, and last year, $2,438.

Convention/workshop: Request of $3,000, cut to $2,500. Past three years: $1,613, $923 and last year, $1,118. Lafferty said the fair board has several new members who will attend conventions and workshops, impacting the meals, mileage and convention/workshop budgets.

Office supplies: Request of $4,000, cut to $3,000. Past three years: $1,068, $2,114, and last year, $874.

Electrical wiring: Request of $15,000, cut to $12,000. Past three years: $12,634, $19,659, and last year, $7,601.

Commissioners cut $7,500 from the fair board’s gravel/rock budget and $2,000 from machinery and equipment fuel, telling Lafferty to shift those costs to the Kiplinger budget. Lafferty said she tries to balance budgets of the fairgrounds and the Kiplinger by taking the cost of the tractor from the Kiplinger budget and the fuel for it from the fairgrounds. However, McNutt said, the tractor is being used considerably more in the three Kiplinger arenas and stalls than on the remainder of the fairgrounds and its fuel should and can come from that budget.

Commissioners cut a total of $26,900 from the fair board’s proposed budget, from $725,178 to $698,278.

The fair board’s budget includes a $200,000 figure for miscellaneous capital outlay, which is “imaginary” money if someone were to make a donation of that amount. Having a figure in the budget means that the money could be spent in the same budget year. If it were not in the budget, spending the money would have to wait until it was included in the budget of the following year. The rule is: If the money is not in the budget, it can’t be spent until it is.

Lafferty said that McCook gets a return on all that’s spent on the fairgrounds. “I don’t want to run the budget so low, we can’t keep it up,” she said.

McNutt said he hates to pick apart and slash at a budget as much as anyone else. “I feel pretty beat up,” Lafferty said.

But the reality is, McNutt said, the county is facing land valuations that are falling, which will affect the total valuation that tax levies are built upon. County assessor Kristi Korell will announce the county’s valuation Monday, Aug. 20.

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The proposed 2018-19 budget for the Kiplinger Arena complex was $651,201, however, commissioners added some gravel/rock, fuel and electrical wiring costs that they shifted from the fair board budget.

The Kiplinger budget also includes “imaginary” money of $225,000 in the capital outlay/building construction line, in the event someone were to donate that amount of money.

The Kiplinger arenas are self-supporting, as benefactor Tom Kiplinger intended. He said from Day One — back in 2003 — that the arenas are not to be a burden on taxpayers, but are intended to complement the fairgrounds, McCook and the county.

Farmer/rancher Tom Kiplinger was responsible for the funding for the first Kiplinger Arena on the fairgrounds in McCook in 2003, and since then, for the Trudy and Alice arenas and their expansions, horse stalls and livestock handling equipment.

Tom created “The Tom and Alice Kiplinger Endowment Fund” (which is separate from the Kiplinger arena budget and is funded by his estate) that will oversee the Kiplinger complex on the fairgrounds into perpetuity.

Tom died July 29, 2017. He was 88 years old.

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The fair board sinking fund has increased from $9,000 in budgeted expense in 2017-18 to $12,000 proposed in 2018-19. There was nothing spent from this line last year, although there was an $11,900 expense in 2016-17.

Lafferty said this sinking fund is earmarked from the grandstand restrooms.