[Editor's Note: This is the first of a series of articles on the special meeting discussing the budget on July 23, 2020.]

By Mary Alice Murphy

Three Grant County commissioners attended the special meeting on July 23, 2020—District 1 Commissioner and Chairman Chris Ponce, District 2 Commissioner Javier "Harvey" Salas, and District 3 Commissioner Alicia Edwards. Because District 4 Commissioner Billy Billings and District 5 Commissioner Harry Browne were unable to attend the meeting, a change was made to the agenda.

The first item of business was to table the item to approve the budget. The commissioners also set another special meeting to vote on the budget. It will take place at 9 a.m. Tuesday, July 28, 2020, when everyone has indicated they can attend.

No public input had come into the office for the special meeting.

The entire meeting was set to review the fiscal year 2021 county budget. Financial Officer Linda Vasquez said that she, County Manager Charlene Webb and Chief Procurement Officer Randy Hernandez had worked together to build the budget, so that it would be acceptable to the Department of Finance and Administration.

"I thank the department heads and elected officials for working with us," Vasquez said. "In March, we froze positions, we said no traveling and no unnecessary purchases, which left us spending only 88 percent of our budget, leaving us a comfortable cushion going into the new fiscal year."

She proceeded to discuss the changes to the budget. The insurance will be budgeted at 100 percent. "We expect a reduction in revenues of about 10 percent and will possibly have furlough days. The decrease will be due to less gross receipts taxes, less copper production, because we don't know yet what that will be. Everybody's budget is basically flat except for the telephone item, which was underbudgeted last year. We left the parcel mapping project in, because that needs to be done. We have five frozen positions. We thought it would be 11, then 9, but with the cushion, it will be five. There is one frozen position in the manager's office, one in the clerk's office and three at the road department. I have calculated about 13 furlough days, which provides $176,000 in savings. We are not doing any cuts in the sheriff's department or corrections, because they are 24-hour operations, so no cuts and no furloughs. We cannot do a cut in pay for elected officials, unless the County Commission approves it. With the furlough days, it would be about a 5 percent cut, which would be about $1,500 loss each to elected officials in their salary.

She said she had given the commissioners recap sheets, with the 13 furlough days and the 5 frozen positions. The beginning balance is about $4 million, and the amounts budgeted are about $12 million. "We have budgeted about $10 million in expenses, with an estimated surplus at the end of the fiscal year of about $189,000. We must have the three/twelfths reserve of $2.6 million. Commissioners will have to decide on the furloughs. Another recap sheet shows no furloughs, which would require the increase in transfers from the general fund to departments and would leave an estimated surplus of $33,000."

Vasquez asked if the commissioners wanted to hear each department's budget.

Ponce asked that each department be reviewed for discussion.

Vasquez noted that the budget considers that current property taxes would likely be decreasing. "I took into consideration the possibility of miners being laid off, and the potential for copper production decreasing by about $400,000, which would be a 17 percent decrease."

The rest of the meeting will be covered with each department being discussed in a future much longer article or articles.