After clarifying what it was exactly for, and on a third motion, the Kosciusko County Council approved an additional appropriation of almost $300,000 Thursday night.
County Commissioner Cary Groninger presented the additional appropriation request for Economic Development Income Tax funds of $292,820.
He said it was “for some additional expenditures we have this year on the Tippy-Chapman District sewer as well as (Animal Welfare League) and also that Plunge Creek tile drainage project down there on 400E that we had a problem with.”
Councilwoman Joni Truex said it was for $192,820 on the “breakdown” sheet before her, but the request says $292,820. She said she understood $100,000 of that was already paid, and Groninger said it was.
He said the $100,000 for AWL for 2018 was expended in 2018. Truex questioned if the council had to do an additional appropriation for something that was already paid.
Groninger said, “Yes, but I think there was some additional monies, at least what I show, is there’s $100,000 for the construction project for the AWL. There’s the $92,820 for the ditch project on 400E, and then for the Tippy-Chapman sewer was another $77,000.”
He said the expense for the sewer was in getting it established and some of it may be reimbursed. Council President Sue Ann Mitchell said the original amount agreed to for the sewer to get started was $145,000.
Mike Long, councilman, asked how much of the additional appropriation was AWL getting. Groninger said $100,000 for capital. The county promised $200,000 to the AWL for its building project, with half given last year and half this year.
“We wanted to make sure the project was moving forward. I don’t know if you’ve been out by there, but it’s getting really close to finishing up,” Groninger said.
He said problems were created when the money the county paid to the AWL in 2018 “was already encumbered to finish the county highway garage and some of those things. ... it ate up some of the monies that we had to encumber for 2019.”
Long asked if the $200,000 to the AWL all got used for capital projects. Groninger said in the motion approving that money it stated the money was to be used only for capital projects. Long asked if that’s how it got used. Groninger said he couldn’t vouch for that but as far as he knew it did. The county hasn’t written the AWL the second check yet but it could confirm that before the check is written.
Truex asked if none of the funds were budgeted. Groninger said they weren’t last year and all happened since the budget was completed in July.
Truex then said she was still confused and asked County Auditor Michelle Puckett, “How can we possibly do an additional appropriation for something that was paid and spent in 2018?”
Puckett said Groninger did indicate some of that money was spent in 2018, but since it was spent in 2018 and wasn’t appropriated, it affected the cash balance. “So we can encumber less of the highway project because we spent those ‘18 dollars. I know it’s designated that way ... for the Animal Welfare League, and we did spent it, but that means we couldn’t encumber those highway bills so we had to pay them out of this year’s dollars,” she explained.
Councilman Doug Heinisch said at that point he wasn’t sure how much they were appropriated, what it was for or the background of it. “I don’t feel like I’ve got a good handle on this at all,” he said.
Groninger said there were multiple moving parts involved that made it a little more confusing. He said of the $292,820, it included $200,000 for AWL – the half not paid yet and the other half paid in 2018 using encumbered funds that should have gone toward the highway garage – and the $92,820 for the repair of tile on Plunge Creek. He said the tile work is already out for bid.
Kim Cates, councilwoman, asked if the additional appropriation should be tabled because of the confusion. Councilman Ernie Wiggins said he didn’t think so.
“I think what’s confusing about it is the $100,000 for the Animal Welfare League affected the highway garage, so instead of the $100,000 construction project for the AWL, consider that as highway,” Wiggins said. Mitchell agreed.
Councilman Jon Garber made a motion to approve the $292,820 additional appropriation but it failed by a vote of 3-4, with only Mitchell, Garber and Wiggins voting for it.
Truex then made a motion to approve $192,820, but it failed by a vote of 2-5, with only Truex and Cates voting for it.
“All we’ve done is kick the can down the road here,” Wiggins said.
Cates asked for a better understanding of what was happening. Mitchell said, “I don’t know of any simpler way to explain it than that when they spent the money out of the budget in ‘18, they didn’t have an appropriation to do so, but they spent it because they had other appropriations for the highway for various other things that were already budgeted at that time. So when they spent that money, then that made it fall short for the highway money. But the simple thing is, they need the $100,000 that they spent the money in ‘18 for AWL. They need that money to now finish the project for the highway.”
Mitchell said they could have done an $100,000 additional appropriation in 2018 to have covered it and that would have fixed the whole issue, but that didn’t happen. “So at this point we can fix the issue, we can take care of it, so they can meet the $92,000 and send the money to the Animal Welfare League and they can also fix the rest of the highway project,” she said.
Long said the whole issue he was having with it was, “I’ve kind of received information that Animal Welfare moved $125,000 from capital to operating and I have a very hard time (with that).”
Wiggins responded, “That was in the past. It doesn’t affect this at all.”
Long said his hangup on it was that $125,000, but if that was in the past he would support the motion for the $292,820.
Cates made a motion to approve the $292,820. It was approved 5-2, with Truex and Heinisch opposed.
Mitchell said, “We will get through this. We will make it work because that’s what we do in this county.”
