County Budget Adopted Following 6-1 Vote By Supervisors

The Antelope County Supervisors held their final budget hearing Tuesday morning and adopted the 2015-16 budget.

At a previous meeting, budgets submitted by the sheriff's department and extension office had been items of contention. However, neither were brought up in discussion before the county budget was adopted this morning.

Discussion about the road and bridge fund was the primary topic of concern. Supervisor Greg Koinzan presented information to the board about both the Inheritance tax fund, which is from taxes paid when a person dies, and the road and bridge fund, which is money from the State of Nebraska. 

He suggested different ways of allocating the money for what he said could potentially lower the tax asking. Chairman Jerry Schwager said that the county wouldn't want to deplete the inheritance tax fund because that is for emergencies.

Koinzan said that the fund would replenish itself every year by a minimum of $300,000. He told the board he wanted to make a plan to spend some of the money from the two funds but not use all of them. 

"Antelope County doesn't have a revenue problem. They have an allocation problem," Koinzan said.

Supervisor Ed Schindler also stated that the county has an equipment problem.

Koinzan said there was currently $1.6 million in the Inheritance Tax Fund and there would be more added to it annually.

Charlie Henery said that it wasn't a given to keep receiving that money. The state continually takes more and more of it. He also brought up that the townships will be dissolving next year when they go to a commissioner system and that money will no longer be coming into the county.

"We need to have somewhat of a reserve to offset that above what our budget is," Henery said.

He added that he wasn't against using some of the money from the Inheritance Tax Fund for some projects. He also pointed out that there are still more bridges that need to be done in the near future that would use up the Road and Bridge Fund from the sate.

Henery made a motion to adopt the budget as it was presented. Schindler seconded the motion. All board members voted to approve the budget except Koinzan.