The Dona Ana County Commission discussed the budget process in a work session on Tuesday.
A number of commissioners expressed concern about large differences in the spending and revenue budgets. In the current fiscal year…the spending budget exceeds the revenue budget by more than $23 million. Previous years also had large gaps.
But the county finance director noted that those gaps get much smaller by the end of the year…because revenue may be higher than expected….and spending may be lower. One example...the county triage center. Money was budgeted for the center in a previous year...the center was built, but it never opened.
The county has dipped into reserves in order to balance the budget in certain years. And Commissioner Ben Rawson said the county should do its best to avoid depleting reserves.
One possible shortfall on the horizon in the current fiscal year involves county revenue from the gross receipts tax. The county budgeted a three percent increase in GRT revenue, but so far, revenue is actually lower than last year.