| County fears for future of its finances |
By: Darrell Todd Maurina
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PULASKI COUNTY, Mo. (July 12, 2010) — Unlike many jurisdictions in Missouri, Pulaski County sales tax revenues have remained stable, but county commissioners warned at their Monday morning meeting that state cutbacks could cause serious problems for Pulaski County.
Eastern District Commissioner Bill Farnham warned that one of the county’s biggest problems could be a reduced state reimbursement for prisoner room and board bills. Pulaski County currently pays $35 per day per inmate to send more than half and sometimes up to two-thirds of its prisoners to other counties or to the Dixon City Jail because the Pulaski County Jail is too small to handle the county’s inmates.
“What I’m really concerned about it what’s going to happen with our jail reimbursement. They cut it back to $19.58 and that’s one of the first places they may cut again,” Farnham warned.
“With what I’ve seen from the federal and state cuts, we’re doing about as well as could be expected,” said Presiding Commissioner Don McCulloch.
Finances could also be affected by other factors. Farnham said that according to the magazine of the Missouri Association of Counties, Phelps County is attempting to become a second-class county rather than a third-class county.
Missouri divides its counties into four classes based on the total assessed valuation of its property; in general, smaller and therefore less affluent counties have fewer state mandates but also have fewer home-rule options. Most rural Missouri counties are third-class counties; the only local exception in Camden County, which due to the Lake of the Ozarks is a first-class county.
However, counties pay assessments to the circuit court and various other regional bodies based on population rather than on assessed valuation.
“Supposedly Phelps County has lesser population than we do,” Farnham said. “Even if they are a higher valuation will we have to continue to pay more money than them?”
County Clerk Diana Linnenbringer said that county assessments will depend largely on census results, and it’s not yet clear how Pulaski County will fare in comparison to nearby counties.
“We have more people but we’re poorer, supposedly, on our valuation. To me that doesn’t seem right,” Farnham said.
“If that’s the case, who do we take it up with? The secretary of state?” asked McCulloch.
Farnham and Linnenbringer said they didn’t know the answer.
In other business, Farnham said Gary Porter, the new chairman of the Pulaski County Sewer Board, had told him he hasn’t received a written letter of resignation from former board chairman Mark Cortesini but said Cortesini has verbally resigned.
Farnham noted that if four-fifths of the sewer board members vote Cortesini off the board, the vacant position can then be filled by the county commissioners.
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