photo by: Chris Conde

The Douglas County Courthouse is pictured in September 2018.

The Douglas County Commission will consider authorizing about $2.7 million worth of year-end budget transfers during its meeting on Wednesday.

The proposed transfers are the final step of the year-end budgeting process for the county’s 2019 budget. The commission began the process in December when it approved an amended 2019 budget, which allowed the county to account for excess revenue it received throughout that year.

About $2.5 million of the proposed transfers consists of moving money from the county’s general fund — its largest and broadest fund — to other budget accounts. The rest is a single transfer of about $221,000 from the county’s road and bridge fund, which includes the county’s public works department, to a special highway account.

In 2019, the county saw an increase in revenue because vehicle owners paid about $300,000 more in taxes than the county expected; the county’s investments earned about $500,000 more in interest than expected; and shoppers paid about $400,000 more in sales taxes than the county expected, among other things.

With the increased revenue, the county had about $3.3 million more available in its general fund than what it had planned for in the summer of 2018, when the commission crafted the 2019 budget.

When the Commission approved the amended budget in December, it also provided the authority to transfer up to $3.03 million from the general fund to other accounts. But County Administrator Sarah Plinsky told the Journal-World Tuesday that the county proposes using a majority of the authority and letting the remainder go.

“We’re going to leave the budget authority on the table,” she said, noting the proposed transfers are the final acts of the 2019 budget. “We’re just not using that.”

The proposed $2.7 million worth of year-end transfers include:

• $2 million transfer to capital improvement fund.

• $265,750 transfer to capital improvement fund to finance a portion of Douglas County Jail’s security system upgrade.

• $48,404 transfer to fund the 2019 Heritage Conservation projects.

• $61,000 transfer to tax system equipment reserves.

• $51,600 transfer to information technology equipment reserves.

• $60,000 transfer to criminal justice services equipment reserves.

• $221,670 transfer from public works to special highway fund for 2019 projects that are in progress.

In other business, the commissioners will meet for a work session to discuss work to improve racial equity in the county.

Part of the discussion will center on the county’s recent membership in the Government Alliance on Race and Equity, or GARE, which is a network of governments from across the country working to advance racial equity and increase opportunities for all.

The County Commission will meet at 4 and 5:30 p.m. for its work session and regular meeting, respectively, Wednesday at the county courthouse, 1100 Massachusetts St. Full agendas are available online at douglascountyks.org.