Commission considers budget amendments
By Daniel Arens
As Mercer County moves forward into 2017, the county commission needs to ensure that its house is in order from last year.
Shana Brost, Mercer County auditor, presented the commission with a list of revisions to the 2016 budget during the Feb. 1 county commission meeting. Commissioner Dwight Berger asked to know where each part of these amendments would come from within the budget. He also pointed out that the county spent nearly $2 million more than it received.
Brost addressed each item point by point. She replied that some of these expenses are technicalities that don’t actually cost the county much. For example, the landfill does not receive levied funds, but gets its money through dumping fees. However, the operational costs must still be budgeted.
Also, much of the higher spending relates to Mercer County’s involvement in helping deal with the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) protests. All of these costs are reimbursable.
