Van Buren’s Budget Committee met Thursday night to rework its numbers.
Committee Chair Cale Crain said he discovered discrepancies in the budget at approximately the time it came up as an agenda item at the full commission meeting.
“Things changed from when the time that we got the numbers until that night and that was the biggest reason why whenever we approved it that night to try to go forward that was checked it was noticed that those numbers aren’t going to work,” Crain said.
Crain said they had added revenue to the budget from a new Solid Waste Contract with Bledsoe Prison.
Crain said they had also reduced monthly expenses by cancelling an equipment rental agreement and encouraging departments to look for goods and services outside of favored vendor relationships.
“Some departments get used to using vendors that they’ve used for a long time and they may not be getting the best prices,” Crain said. “We’ve kind of pushed towards using more options.”
Crain said that some third party services provided by the county had not been billed.
“Upon reviewing a contract we found out the billing was not being done properly which we fixed immediately,” Crain said.
Crain said the new budget was conservative and put the county in a good position for the next fiscal year.
“Hopefully, fingers crossed, we got everything,” Crain said.
The Budget Committee will meet again on July 4th to approve the new budget and move it to full commission.
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