The Social Services Fund, a part of the category Health & Human Services, has been decreased from $25.8 million $19.7 million because the State of Colorado has assumed direct payment of benefits to some clients previously paid by the County. At the same time, under the new Federal Welfare Reform Act, the County's local support in the form of property taxes and other revenues has increased about 5 percent to $5.15 million. About $1.5 million of this amount will come from excess revenues accumulated in the fund balance.

The Sheriff's budget, a part of the category "Public Safety & Judicial," was increased $1,033,000. The increase included funds for seven new employees and the continuation of the jail alternatives program to mitigate overcrowding at the County jail.

The addition of 17.63 new full time employees, seven of whom were added to the Sheriff's staff and five of whom were specialized positions related to computing. The balance were distributed throughout County departments and offices.

The allocations ot non-profit agencies, the Mental Health Center and the Board for Developmental Disabilities, part of the category "Health & Human Services," were increased $152.7 thousand for 1998.

The Capital Expenditure Fund, part of the category "County Infrastructure & Roads," was increased approximately $1.8 million for 1998 to purchase land or pursue other options for moving some County offices out of downtown Boulder.

Other Items of Interest

The salary and benefit package for County employees for 1998 includes salary survey adjustments, a 3% merit pool and salary increases for employees who are below the midpoint of their salary range.

The Road Fund, part of the category "County Infrastructure & Roads," includes only ongoing local and State sources of revenue. It is expected that there will be specific projects in 1998 which will receive Federal and/or State revenue. These revenues will be budgeted when the amounts are known. This is consisten with past practice.

The total mill levy for the County in 1997 (for taxes collected in 1998) is 21.243 mills. This total includes a refund of $137,745 in excess property taxes collected in 1996, a levy of .296 mills to recover refunds made to IBM in 1997, and a temporary mill levy reduction of 1.002 mills, as allowed by State Statute.

In November, 1997, the voters approved two issues of importance to Boulder County:

The first was the approval of $35 million in bonds for open space purchases, without any increase in taxes. The bonds will be issued in early 1998, and will be added to the budget when the money is received. In addition to the new money, there are some residual funds in existing open space accounts which will be spent in 1998. These are shown in the category "Land Use/Parks & Open Space/Recycling."

The second was approval for the County to keep any revenues received from the State of Colorado, other governments and non-profit organizations and revenues from provision of services to other governments and to exempt such revenues from the limitations of Article X, Section 20 of the Colorado Constitution. This approval was retroactive to January 1, 1997.

Boulder County 1998 Board of Commissioners

Copies of the entire 1998 budget are available to the public at the County Finance Office and the County Commissioners.

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