Gas prices could put government over budget
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At issue is the fact that prices have gone up considerably since August, when the county’s budget was finalized. Since department heads based their fuel budgets on the prices at that point, if fuel prices continue to rise, or even if they stay at the current levels, departments could be significantly under-budgeted, with the possibility of running out of money for fuel as early as March or April.
Departments affected include those which maintain a number of vehicles: the Warren County School System, EMS, Sheriff’s Department, Highway Department, and Sanitation Department.
“I know nobody realized what the fuel prices were going to jump to,” Rogers said. “And I just wondered if there’s anything we could share and help each other to maybe conserve a little fuel.
“Our budget is not going to make it, not what we budgeted for,” Rogers added. “It’s just not going to do it.”
Sheriff Jackie Matheny said he saw a big rise in his most recent fuel costs.
“Our last two bills were about double,” he said. “Not quite, but it was over $10,000. And if we continue at that rate, we budgeted $96,000, we’d be over $120,000.”
Director of Schools Dr. Jerry Hale said the problem would probably affect extracurricular activities more than anything else.
“We do so many field trips,” Hale said. “So what we’re doing is we’re putting a surcharge so that if the school wants to take a field trip now, they’re going to have to pay the surcharge. We’ve never charged for fuel, so we’ve put a charge on for fuel. I just announced that to the principals about an hour ago. We feel like we can either cut down on the number of trips, or raise enough revenue to make up the difference.”
Hale said students already pay extra for field trips and the schools might be able to tack on another 50 cents to $1 per student per trip and cover the fuel costs.
Hale said the school system would probably have to cut back on trips to conferences and staff development meetings as well. Hale noted the state used to pay mileage, meals and hotels for such conferences, but dropped that in 2001 and left it to local systems to pay those costs.
Both Matheny and EMS director Leonard Madewell said they couldn’t really cut down on their duties since their departments are vital to the safety of citizens.
“Being seen is really the quality of our service,” Matheny said. “Guys answering calls and patrolling. We don’t cover enough, to me, as it is now. I wish we could cover more.”
“We can’t cut down on our calls or anything,” Madewell said. But he noted where ambulance drivers had previously left motors running, in some cases to provide lights at a scene, they would now shut the motors off whenever possible, and make other efforts to conserve fuel.
Rogers also passed along some tips on fuel conservation his office had downloaded from the Internet, such as driving slower and more conservatively, cutting back on air conditioning when possible and doubling up on trips, and asked the department heads to meet with their personnel and pass the information along.
Rogers made it clear necessary services would not be cut, and if worse comes to worse, the county might have to transfer funds from other parts of the budget to cover the costs toward the end of the fiscal year in 2006, but still noted there wasn’t much leeway to do so.
The department heads also noted that the rising fuel prices would have a ripple effect and would probably bring about an increase in other costs, such as food and supplies, since the freight industry would be passing down their rising fuel costs by increasing rates.