Doña Ana County passed a final budget for fiscal year 2017, by a vote of 4 to 0, Commissioner Wayne Hancock was not present at the meeting.
Doña Ana County passed a budget of just about $153 million dollars, with anticipated revenues for 2017 expected to be around $137 million dollars. The budget difference is being made up from reserve funds for a specific use.
Commissioner Billy Garrett says this is a good budget for a tight budget year.
“Well we got here,” Garrett said. “And we met the terms that the commission had imposed. We’re using some reserves and it’s on a one-time basis, so I don’t have a problem with that. You know, it’s been a struggle, working through the various needs that all the different departments have, and I think the continued work to tie the budget to the strategic plan is really, really important.”
Commissioner Ben Rawson says they are doing a better job at not using as much from reserve funds this year.
“We’re going to spend just about $7 million dollars out of reserves,” Rawson said. “This year, how we continue to work our way down in the reserves. I did vote in favor of the Budget. I think it’s a step in the right direction compared to where we’ve been before, but I am looking forward to next year and being able to move in a different direction with the county’s budget.”
Commissioner Rawson tried to cut some funding from the South Central Regional Transit District’s Bus Service in an effort to restructure the current program.
“This is so inefficient,” Rawson said. “This is a terrible example of government waste, and so we have over $200,000 being spent on salaries to run buses for individuals that do need some service, and we see there we’re getting about $69 dollars in revenue of people that actually ride the buses each week. There simply is no significant ridership of the buses, it’s not meeting the needs of the community.”
The amendment to cut the funding from the budget failed in a 2 to 2 vote.
