SCOTT COUNTY BUDGET APPROVED: $3.9 MILLION

BENTON -- The Scott County Commission approved a $3.9 million 1994 budget Tuesday that includes two new sheriff's deputies and an anticipated 1-cent drop in the general revenue fund levy.

The commission is expected to roll back the levy from 7 to 6 cents because of increased sales tax revenue, officials said. The road and bridge levy is expected to remain at the current 26-cent rate.

Scott County received nearly $1.2 million in sales tax revenue last year. That's expected to climb to $1.3 million this year, budget figures show.

"We've had some pretty good checks in the last few months of '93," said County Clerk Bob Kielhofner, who also serves as the county's budget officer. He said he expects to see that trend continue this year.

The budget includes 2 percent pay raises for county employees earning more than $18,000 a year and 3 percent raises for those earning less.

Most of the county's road and bridge employees will receive 3 percent pay hikes, county officials said. Presiding Commissioner Durward Dover said the road and bridge employees generally make less than $18,000 a year.

Dover termed the salary hikes "modest."

The budget includes funding for two new deputies who will begin in March. The hirings will cost the county about $58,000 for the remaining 10 months of the year, said Kielhofner.

In another personnel move, Kielhofner said a juvenile department deputy will be moved from part-time to full-time status at a cost of $15,000.

Scott County's total budgeted expenses of $3.9 million are about $300,000 more than last year, the county clerk said.

Estimated expenditures in the county's four principal funds are: $2.57 million in general revenue, $979,000 in road and bridge, $242,426 in assessment, and $16,120 in the landfill fund.

Approved expenditures for the general revenue fund show a $119,674 increase from the 1993 estimate.

Besides the new deputies, added expenditures include the purchase of a computerized vote-tabulating machine at a cost of $34,000.

"There will be no more vote counting at precincts," explained Dover. That, in turn, should reduce the number of election clerks and judges needed at the polling places, he said.

Kielhofner said he hopes to use the new vote-counting system as early as the April election.

"We are appropriating more money than we are generating revenue here," Kielhofner said of the county budget.

As a result, the general fund balance is expected to drop from over $664,000 down to $398,364.

"The only way the 1995 fund balance can be maintained near this year's total is with frugal spending by all county departments to a point of leaving 10 percent of estimated expenditures unspent," Kielhofner said in his budget message.

As to the new deputies, Sheriff Bill Ferrell has said the sheriff's department needs the added manpower to meet an increased workload.

In his budget message, Kielhofner quoted remarks made by Sheriff Bill Ferrell in a letter to the county commission.

Ferrell wrote: "Additional personnel is needed for serving warrants and transporting prisoners as in the past few years our warrant load has gradually increased. It has now reached a figure of astronomical proportions with our present active warrant list, as of January 1994, totaling in excess of 1,050 warrants.

"It is imperative that we address this problem in 1994," said Ferrell. "With the closing of the Sikeston city jail, we have experienced an extra work load of approximately 20 hours per week just in transporting Sikeston prisoners." The city of Sikeston closed its jail about a year ago.

Ferrell said the department also has had to operate with a limited jail staff. During the past 12 years the department has utilized a jailer as a first-responder to night calls.

"In the last few years these calls have increased to such a number that it is no longer safe or wise to do this. We must have a person who can respond to these calls and still keep our jail adequately staffed," wrote Ferrell.

Dover said the county commission and Sikeston city officials have yet to reach an agreement over jail arrangements regarding persons arrested by Sikeston police.

He said the closing of the city jail has put an added burden on the county.

Sikeston City Manager Steve Borgsmiller said city officials have had on-going discussions with Ferrell about the situation.

Borgsmiller said the city would prefer to have a written contract. But he said that as a practical matter, Sikeston municipal offenders are generally not jailed. Those persons jailed generally are being held on state charges, he explained.

It's the county's responsibility to house such prisoners, he said.

"We could just no longer afford to stay in the jail business," said Borgsmiller.

"I am happy the sheriff has more deputies, regardless of what his reason is," the city manager said.