As Canadian County revenues continue to lag, officials say they are getting creative in finding funding sources.
District 1 Commissioner Phil Carson said last week he is still concerned about appropriations coming into the county — the amount is “not what it needs to be” and, if it continues unchecked, he said it could pose some serious problems for planned projects.
“We have issues when oil and gas activity remains down and when our appropriations don't hit the level we need,” he said. “It's not as bad as it was at one point last year, but it's certainly something we need to keep an eye on.”
The county derives income from various sources, and as the national economic picture remains weakened, officials said those issues trickle down to local and county government. Fearing an ongoing recession, county officers implemented budget cuts earlier this year to plan for an increased downturn, Carson said.
“It's a painful thing — it's never easy to cut expenses,” he said. “However, it's one of those situations where you don't have any choice. You cut it or you have even more serious ramifications.”
While officials cut their budgets, commissioners said they are still set on moving forward with presenting a new jail proposal to voters in 2010. In its current form, the 308-bed planned jail would come with a $17.9 million price tag. Because county officials are still in the preliminary stage of the project, they said they could not speculate how much a total bond proposal would be or how they would ask residents to fund it.
“Before there was the move to totally pay for this with sales taxes,” Carson said. “We don't know if that's the way to go. Obviously, the cities were against that idea.”
Voters, too, rejected the plan, voting down a $24.8 million jail proposal in May 2008. After the proposal failed, a steering committee met to discuss the county's options, with some members suggesting a move to split the funding — utilizing both a sales tax increase and a “small” property tax hike.
Another problem for county officials stems from the idea that there is ongoing waste in government, Carson said. Residents confront him “weekly,” he said, concerning a building Canadian County purchased in 2007.
“We have this building that's just sitting there, and we were told by (then-Commissioner) Don Young it was 'move-in ready,'” Carson said. “The taxpayers are footing the bill for a location that is deteriorating and sitting vacant because no one will move into it.”
The building, located at 210 N. Choctaw, was purchased in September 2007 for $300,000. At the time, county officials said it would be the future home of the county treasurer's office.
Since then, fewer companies have searched county land records, Treasurer David Radcliff said. This may have alleviated some of his office's space concerns.
“I'm not saying the building shouldn't be used — I've just said that in order to make it work for our needs, it would cost a lot of money, and that's money we need to be conservative with, at this point,” Radcliff said. “I've heard about other uses that building could fulfill, or maybe the county should sell it. All I know is it's not sitting vacant because my office refuses to move over there.”