Lewis County Commission Reserves Money for Capital Funding Improvements

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Lewis County commissioners and staff convened one last time before Monday’s official adoption of the 2020 budget during a Nov. 27 update session highlighted by a decision to set aside funds for local design and construction projects. 

Budget Manager Becky Butler presented county commissioners with the option of approving the utilization of a 10 percent, 5 percent or 3.5 percent portion of the budget’s sales and use tax — a component of the General Fund revenue amounting to $7.4 million — as capital funding expenditures. 

“Not only do we have some potential big capital improvements coming up, but we have ongoing costs we need to cover,” Butler said. “We are starting to implement some kind of revenue stream and then look at one-time funding that comes into fund those one-time capital projects.” 

While presenting those options, she noted how the commission similarly greenlighted the transfer of $500,000 of “unexpected revenue” to capital funding for technology projects. 

Both the commissioners in attendance, Bobby Jackson and Gary Stamper, and Edna Fund, who was dialed in from a remote location, agreed to set aside 3.5 percent, or $259,000, of the sales tax revenue to help satisfy the costs associated with a slew of renovations. 

Projects on the capital improvement expenditure list includes, among others: ongoing maintenance and improvements to the Lewis County Historic Courthouse; building, paving and electrical enhancements and improvements at the Southwest Washington Fairgrounds; construction of a new animal shelter and design and construction of an automated weather observing station at the Packwood Airport.

Stamper said, on allocating the lower amount, “My idea would be to put some in, but maybe start low because it doesn’t do any good to put some money in if we have to (later) find money to run the county.”



Jackson echoed Stamper’s sentiments by advising his colleagues to avoid getting “locked into” certain endeavors in light of how “volatile” things may become down the road when county government might find itself extracting money out for certain activities due to it being placed  somewhere else. 

The Board of County Commissioners is scheduled to vote on the adoption of the 2020 budget at 10 a.m. Monday at the conclusion of a public hearing.

Currently, the preliminary 2020 budget shows total expenditures for all county funds in the amount of $119,743,548 and total revenues at $123,614,577.

Preliminary general fund revenues total $38,491.543.00 with expenditures at $40,209.841.00, with a projected shortfall of about $1.7 million. More than 50 percent of general fund dollars go to law enforcement and another 25 percent goes to courts.