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Pueblo County commissioners approve $5.96 million 2024 budget amendment to cover overspending and fund transfers
Summary
The Pueblo County Board of County Commissioners approved a multi-million-dollar amendment to correct overspending across several funds, including a $3.4 million transfer from the general fund to capital improvements and a $636,000 reclassification of ERP costs previously budgeted in ARPA.
Pueblo County commissioners on May 6 approved a $5.96 million amendment to the county’s 2024 budget to cover overspending in several funds and to realign expenses across accounts.
The amendment primarily increases the general fund by $5,960,000, including a $3.4 million transfer to the Capital Improvements Fund to cover capital work that exceeded that fund’s original budget. County staff told the Board the capital improvements fund also will receive an amendment of roughly $3 million; the two adjustments offset each other in the county’s accounting but require formal amendment because expenditures exceeded the earlier appropriations.
Finance staff presented the amendment and explained other, smaller transfers and reclassifications. The county moved $636,000 of planned ERP (enterprise resource planning) costs for the new Workday system from the ARPA fund into the general fund after changes to ARPA-funded projects. Staff said that move does not increase overall spending but changes which fund records the expense.
The amendment also includes: a transfer to the excise tax fund to cover additional building project costs (the county said the excise-tax rules require roughly half of excise receipts for projects and half for scholarships); an increase to budgeted health‑benefit “flex” dollars after more employees enrolled in family plans; a $375,000 increase in property‑insurance costs; roughly $636,000 for ERP reclassification; unbudgeted playground equipment and delayed fleet purchases that arrived in 2024; a $150,000 grant the county had not anticipated when the budget was adopted; and a $53,000 overrun in the coroner’s budget, primarily for property taxes on an acquired Santa Fe building.
Staff also told commissioners the county transferred about $4.5 million out of an old HWIP hazardous-waste fund, a federal grant account with activity dating to 2015, into the general fund to cover allowable expenses that had been sitting unused. Staff said the federal funds had been dispersed to outside agencies years ago, and the remaining balance was appropriated to the general fund in accordance with auditors’ guidance.
Commissioners asked clarifying questions about the general fund portion of the amendment versus amounts that simply reallocate grant or auxiliary funds. Finance staff said they will present a clearer table in future amendments showing which expenses are general fund increases and which are fund-to-fund transfers. The Board opened the required public hearing and, seeing no public comment, approved the amendment by voice vote.
The action fixes 2024 overspending by matching appropriations to where money was actually spent and by transferring funds between accounts to reflect actual expenditures.
Ending: Staff said they will provide a more detailed, department‑level breakdown for future amendments so commissioners can see general fund impacts separately from grant and auxiliary fund changes.
