Sublette County Commissioners

approved the 2019-2020 fiscal

budget of $222.86 million during the

July16 meeting. Of that budget, $173 million

is reserves for depreciation, equipment

and cash.

The meeting followed a public hearing

on July 15 where the sole member of the

public to comment was former Sublette

County Commissioner Betty Fear. Commission

Chairman David Burnett and commissioners

Doug Vickrey, Tom Noble, Joel

Bousman and Mack Rawhouser were all in

attendance at both meetings.

Fear cautioned the commission the reserves

should be used and not just saved.

She said it did not serve the county to be

“tooting our horn and saving more money.”

She said just like the state stepped in to

equalize school districts, there are people

in the state thinking counties should also

be equalized, making Sublette County a

large target.

Bousman agreed, saying at the National

Association of County Officials, there was

some move to redistribute money from federal

leases changing the ratio paid to states.

He added the county is better off working

with the state.

Noble questioned accounting methods

that left reserve funds for the completion of

Meadowlark Lane in the Road and Bridge

Department’s budget.

Early in the budget process, commissioners

asked that all reserve funds be left

out of the individual departments’ budgets

and be lumped together in order to compare

year to year.

In the past, as facilities were built and

equipment bought, a depreciation reserve

was established in the same department to

pay for the future replacement equipment.

Sublette County Clerk Carrie Long said

the Meadowlark project was started and

paid for in the Road and Bridge Department’s

budget in the last fiscal year. The

amount left is the $1.2 million not paid out

because the project isn’t completed. She

said it would skew the cost of the project

to move the remaining amount out of that

budget.

Noble said the money overstated the

Road and Bridge Department’s budget as

$7.3 million, when a large chunk of that

was really project funds carried over from

a previous year. “Our goal was to have flatline

budgets,” Noble said.

Bousman said it was changing horses in

midstream and worth noting and remembering

for next year’s budget.

Burnett summarized that the overall

budget is up about $1.4 million over the

previous year, but $1.2 million is carried

over from the project. He said most departments

had decreases and reserves were

maintained at the same levels of the previous.

Noble said many of the remaining increases

were due to state and federal unfunded

mandates.

Burnett said some of the reserves are

earmarked differently; instead of $7 million

for communications and broadband no

longer needed at the level since a private

company was completing a majority of the

project – are now earmarked for a justice

center and jail as well as health care.

Bousman said the changes establish the

commission’s current priorities.

Burnett said Fear’s concern were “realistic.”

“We didn’t increase the savings account;

we didn’t decrease it either.”

He added that at any time a future commission

could reevaluate and establish new

priorities after going through the public

meeting process again.

Vickrey cautioned the county to evaluate

and slow down on building new projects.

Referring to what is happening throughout

the state with minerals, he said the existing

county facilities could be difficult to maintain

without the mineral industry.