Commissioners ponder use of Air Force money

A question of what do with the some of the tax money received in January from the U.S. Air Force was discussed at the County Commission meeting Jan. 6.

Over the past couple of years, Ashley Hall of Ashley Hall & Associates in Las Vegas has been working as a liaison between the federal government and Lincoln County on a memorandum of agreement regarding government facilities within the county.

Agreement was reached between the County and the Air Force, through the work of Hall, and approved by the Board of County Commissioners Sept. 16, 2013.

The first of the payment of $653,273.21 was received by County Treasurer Shawn Frehner earlier this month.

It helped keep the County from going in the red by $40,940, according to Commissioner Paul Donohue.

Frehner said there is more tax money expected to come in from prior years, as worked out by Ashley Hall in the agreement, but has not arrived as yet.

After being distributed among about 30 different funds, and the fee to Hall & Associates, $170,726 remained for Commissioners to discuss what to do with.

Commissioner Kevin Phillips felt the money could be used for helping with various capital improvement projects needed by the County. He said, ?I?d like to see us engage in what I consider two very critical capital projects for the betterment of the County in the long term, and rather than see this money, that we didn?t have before, gobbled up to whatever legitimate, reasonable cause out of the General Fund, put it into the Capital Improvement Fund and start laying out things that must be done for the long term benefit of the citizenry here.?

He made a motion recommending ?a justice complex in association with where the detention center is that would include all of the judicial facilities, a couple of court rooms, jail, everything that has to happen, in one location.? He felt such a facility would help increase revenues for the County and help reduce expenditures out of the General Fund. An example he mentioned would be to look at the justice complex Lyon County has in Yerington.

The second aspect of Phillips? motion was to expand the existing Lincoln County Courthouse building. He said there is room on the north side to push the building out further. He said there is a need for better restroom facilities and more space for storing records and archives.

Phillips said he didn?t want to see this new money coming in get lost in the abyss of the General Fund. ?It just keeps feeding the pig that keeps getting fatter and we have no control. We have to force ourselves to make some changes, we might piddle away about three-quarters of million dollars every year.?

Frehner thought the money needs to go into the General Fund to pay the bills and meet the budget

Donohue felt the money received now ought to go into the General Fund to pay the bills to keep the County in the black. He said he feared there would serious ramifications with the State Budget Office otherwise, ?but if we go minus, then they will come in and take over, making cuts in areas and possibly cut jobs we don?t want to see happen.?

He admitted Commissioners did the best they could last spring with the budget, but knew there would be a shortfall looming at the end of the year. With the additional tax money from the Air Force, Donohue felt strongly that, ?now we?ve got to plug the hole we knew we were going to have. We can?t not pay.?

He thought it would be better to use the money in the General Fund, ?to keep us afloat,? and then put any additional money, if it comes, into the Capital Improvement Fund.

Phillips stated he thought it would be a good idea to tackle the problem of the annual payments of roughly half a million dollars in two ways. First, in the budgetary process by taking some of the money to pay the bills, and putting another certain portion into a Capital Improvement Fund budget where it cannot be touched except for capital projects. ?Here?s an opportunity to long term make Capital Improvement payments to do things that would benefit us in terms of infrastructure, and the ability to add revenue and lessen the burden on the General Fund ,? he said.

After lengthy discussion Commissioners approved an amended motion to state not to touch the money received this year from the Air Force, and any extra that may come, then make plans pursuant to the discussion when they begin the 2014-15 budget process in the spring.