Carbon County Commissioner Larry Jensen has been working diligently on the county’s budget especially since the last two years have resulted in budget cuts.
“I have tried over the last two and half months to spend a fair amount of time with employees trying to see how they feel about things and I sense there is some discouragement. I think a big part of that is just the budget cuts that have happened two years in a row. That’s a difficult thing for employees wondering what the future brings,” said Commissioner Jensen. The reality is the county’s budget is in a tough spot and although there are reserves to draw on those funds from Oil and Gas Leases are declining which makes it difficult to keep a significant amount of reserves.
The efforts to manage the budget over the last two years have not gone unnoticed. “We have to make sure that our services that we’re providing for the county are the ones that we really have to have. We have no way of coming up with money other than the resources that come in right now. Balancing that is a difficult thing and I feel for the employees and we’re working hard to figure out ways of ensuring that no more jobs are lost,” explained Commissioner Jensen. His main goal is making sure employees are taken care of but on the other hand, the majority of the community who pay taxes need to feel good about what the county is doing with the money that they spend.
It’s not all dome and gloom with the budget because there are some great ways to increase the county’s revenue that is through Economic Development. “Well, one good thing that’s just in the works right now is the coal produced in Sanpete County through the Skyline Mine. The mineral lease payments go to Sanpete for those funds and we’re making an agreement right now with Sanpete County that because the trucks and the mining facility are in Carbon County and impact really hits our county that they’re going to share in those funds with us, so that will help,” stated Commissioner Jensen. Also, there is a company that is looking to get established here in the next few years that will not only bring in jobs but will increase the tax dollars that come to the county. There are ongoing efforts every day that are going into bringing in companies to set up shop in the county as well as working with current companies to possible expand their operations.
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