The Cape Girardeau County Commission approved a preliminary budget for 2023 during its Dec. 29 meeting. The budget includes more than $32 million of requested expenditures between its general revenue, road and bridge, sheriff’s office and assessment budgets.
County Auditor Pete Frazier said the preliminary budget will be used at the beginning of the year until a final budget can be approved. The final budget, which will be presented on Jan. 9, will include the exact balances of county accounts at the end of 2022 instead of the estimates used for the preliminary budget.
The preliminary budget includes $9.75 million of appropriations for the county’s general revenue fund, which includes general county expenses and most county offices including the collector, recorder, the county courts and county parks.
The county is estimated to receive $9 million in general revenue sales tax, as well as $3.73 million from other general revenue sources. The county is also expected to start the year with around $3.53 million in its general revenue fund.
In the preliminary budget, $5 million is expected to be transferred from the general revenue fund to the county’s capital improvement fund. This is estimated to leave $1.51 million unencumbered in the general revenue account at the end of 2022.
“Capital improvement is a primary fund for us, but it has no dedicated revenue stream like a sales tax dedicated to it,” Frazier said. “We have to use balances available to put into our capital improvement fund to work on projects like repairing a roof.”
The sheriff’s budget includes $14.98 million in requested appropriations. The budget includes $6.31 million for the sheriff’s office, $6.99 million for the county jail and $1.67 million for the 911 dispatch center.
The sheriff’s fund is expected to receive $9 million from the law enforcement sales tax, $2.15 million from the Prop 1 sales tax and $3.17 million from other sources. The fund is estimated to start the year with $7.08 million and expected to end the year with an unencumbered balance of $6.42 million.
The county’s road and bridge fund has $6.2 million in budgeted expenditures for next year, with approximately $2.42 million of the expenditures going to hard surface roads. The road and bridge fund is expected to receive a total income of $5.99 million in 2023, with the majority of the income coming from Prop 1 sales tax funding. The fund is expected to have a total unencumbered balance of $2.99 million at the end of the year.
The county’s assessment fund includes $1.14 million in budgeted expenditures, with an estimated 2023 income of $1.13 million and an estimated unencumbered balance of $369,135 at the end of the year.
