Castle Country Radio was fortunate to have Carbon County Commissioner Larry Jensen and Carbon County Clerk Seth Marsing stop by to discuss the upcoming Public Hearing on Wednesday, December 18 at 6:00 pm regarding the budget and proposed tax increase.

“We have one more public hearing next Wednesday, December 18 at 6:00 pm in the County Administration Building in the Commission Chambers. Where folks can come, as they come in, sign up to speak at that. We had about 60 people speak in the first one on November 20 and the approach we are taking to this next hearing, is the first part of that hearing would be time for us to actually answer some of the questions that were asked in the November 20 public hearing and try and help people understand what is going on,” stated Commissioner Jensen.

There were a few questions at the November 20 public hearing about the county considering to make the Carbon County Ambulance and Animal Shelter a privatization entity. “Our ambulance department goes through their normal operations through the year and collect a little over a million dollars in fees that come into the county and their budget is just a little over a million dollars so there is no value or advantage to our residents in trying to privatize that,” explained Commissioner Jensen. If a private ambulance company did come in there is a strong possibility that they would not be able to serve all calls throughout the county.  As far as the Animal Shelter, the idea of selling the building to Veterinarian practice has been tossed around many times. Unfortunately, the building’s interior set up is not suitable for a Veterinarian practice so that idea has not panned out thus far.

As of December 31, 2018, there was a balance of $10.4 million that was unrestricted funds, cash on hand or fund balance which is when the county receives most of its funding sources for the year so that would be from property taxes, sales taxes and grants. “That money although it is sitting there at that exact time its what we are going to use for the next couple of months to get us through to pay salaries, benefits and just the normal things that we have to pay for. So, it’s actually to be honest with you a little scary to me that we don’t have more there at that time of year because by the time we get back there the next year some of our funds are negative or near negative which is a scary place to be,” stated Marsing.

The other concern that needed to be address with the public was the 2010 audit done on municipal services funds. This audit was conducted within 10 different counties including Carbon to ensure that each county was using their municipal funding appropriately. “In the audit it actually suggests that the best way to operate is to have a municipal service fund, have a municipal service levy, so that we can show exactly what services were provided to out-county residents and where those funds are coming from and that they were coming from those people who were receiving the services. I think the important part is to understand that a municipal service fund is encouraged, there is really no benefit to us dissolving the municipal service fund. Those expenses will still be there and it will be more difficult per say to see where the money comes from to provide those services,” stated Marsing.

Community members that would like to hear this interview in its entirety may do so by visiting www.castlecountryradio.com or http://koalitv.com/