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Letter to Editor: Chad Tyree

I received much positive support, a few questions and a few requests for more information from many Butler County citizens in response to my letter dated December, 17 2015.  As a result I am going to submit a series of letters or articles to help answer questions and give Butler County citizens more information.  More specifically my intent is to inform the citizens of Butler County on the workings and function of Butler County Government and even more specifically the Butler County Fiscal Court. Though I am bless to play many different roles in life, the one I am focused on as I write this letter is that of Butler County’s 3rd district magistrate, and a member of the Butler County Fiscal Court.  Much of the following information is taken from a document developed by a legislative research commission out of Frankfort KY that dates from December 2003, referenced as information bulletin No. 115, and titled County Government in Kentucky.
Who makes up a Fiscal Court?  In Butler County our fiscal court is comprised of 5 magistrates (or Justice of the Pease) and a County Judge executive.  The county judge executive is a member and the presiding officer of the fiscal court and as such in fiscal court meetings the judge executive is on equal footing with the magistrates. In addition to duties related to the fiscal court, the judge executive has extensive
executive and administrative duties outside the fiscal court meetings as the county’s executive. Other fiscal court members, magistrates, possess official power only as members of the court. When the fiscal court is adjourned, (or not having court) magistrates do not have administrative or executive power in relation to county government.  In other words magistrates’ “powers or authority” only truly exists in and during a fiscal court meeting.  Outside the fiscal court meeting magistrates have no real power or authority.  Magistrates while not in fiscal court meetings should work to be prepared for the next fiscal court meeting.  Many hours per week should be spent by each magistrate compiling data, reviewing financial information (especially those weeks leading up to budget approval), researching ordinances and understanding the needs of the county.

What does the Fiscal Court Do?  The fiscal court is established (by law) for the transaction of any and all county business.  A quick internet search of the word fiscal will result in the following definition, “of or relating to government revenue, especially taxes.”  All county funds spent by the county must be approved by the fiscal court, including but not limited to county equipment, materials used on county roads, county employee’s wages, benefits, fuel used by the county, misc supplies, money needed to  keep up county property, and so on.  Not only does the fiscal court approve or disapprove expenses it is responsible for approving and amending budgets as needed.  It is up to constitutionally elected officers such as the Clerk, Judge Executive, Jailer, and Sheriff to establish a viable budget and submit said budgets for approval by the Fiscal Court.   Your fiscal court should be aware of revenue and expense trends along with how each budget affects others budget when voting on budgets submitted.  If revenues are too low or if expenses are too high then one of two things must happen, cut expenses (through services, personnel, wages, benefits or other) or raise taxes (nobody’s favorite).  Yet another equally important job of the fiscal court is to research and possibly approve county ordinances (or county laws).

What are budgets and how do they affect the Fiscal Court?  With another internet search one can find that a budget is a quantitative expression of a plan for a defined period of time.  In more simple terms Butler County’s budgets are set for a one year period of time each and every year and are a road map for the amount of money the county has available to spend for services.  Budgets are developed for both income and expenses.  Butler County Fiscal Court is responsible for and/or must approve many budgets.  They include the General, Road, Jail, LGEA (Local Government Economic Assistance Fund Grant), CDBG (Community Development Block Grant), Rochester Ferry and Reeds Ferry funds.  These aforementioned funds have a fiscal year that runs from July 1st to June 30th.  While the other budgets (including the County Clerk and Sheriff) is a calendar year and run from January 1st to December 31st.  Each fund influences the general fund in some way with exception to the Rochester Ferry and Reeds Ferry funds.  The General Fund as the name implies is a “general” fund that is used to pay for and help support many services performed throughout the county including but not limited to the animal shelter, fire departments, county clerk’s employee benefits, sheriff’s employee benefits and many others.  The number of line items included in all the budgets total in the hundreds and must be carefully reviewed and understood as to how they relate to and affect other budget items.  Each budget is based on the amount of money available or expected to come into them and how much money is expected to be needed to perform the services provided via that fund thru each budget term (or time frame).

How are budget amounts determined?  Again this should be a collective effort and a transparent effort.  This process primarily rest on the shoulders of the Judge Executive, along with the Clerk, Jailer, and Sheriff.  The Clerk, Jailer and Sheriff must operate their individual offices and provide services specific to that office within the fiscal bounds of that office’s budget.  The county Judge executive is responsible for orchestrating not only all the other budgets listed earlier, but also seeing to other office’s budgets (clerk, jailer, sheriff) fit within the overall fiscal limits of county’s revenue and conforms with all Kentucky Revised Statues.  Ultimately all the listed budgets must be presented to, reviewed, and voted on by the members of the Butler County Fiscal Court.  It is important to have many “checks and balances”, and cooperation when it comes to the limited amount of funds available to provide the desired services for citizens of Butler County.

I do realize this is much to take in, with one sitting, but hopefully it set the stage for more to come.  Other topics to cover are taxes, revenues, and diving more into the “nuts and bolts” of Butler County government.  The county has a great staff and many great elected officials; if anyone ever has a budget question (or other questions) I’m certain they are always welcomed with their inquiry.  Thank you for your trust and support as Butler County’s 3rd district magistrate.
Chad Tyree

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