Comptroller: Bannock County reserves ‘healthy,’ staff will consider master-plan funding during budget talks

Bannock County Comptroller Christopher reviewed the county’s projected fund balances and reserve policy at the Board of Commissioners’ meeting on May 29, saying the county has “healthy reserves” but that those funds should be reserved for one-time expenditures rather than ongoing costs.

Christopher told the commissioners that the spreadsheet before them uses an estimated fund balance as of Oct. 1, 2024 (the FY24 numbers were not yet final) and that estimated FY25 revenues are conservatively set at 95% of the property tax budget. “So that’s how to read the spreadsheet,” he said. “We do have if you look at at the numbers, we’ve got healthy reserves.”

The comptroller said the county shows roughly $15,000,000 in excess reserves in the current expense fund, in part because the county budgeted to use $3,000,000 in FY24 but instead added about $4,000,000 to reserves. He credited the county treasurer, Jennifer Clark, for successful investing over the prior two years. Christopher emphasized that reserves are volatile and generally should not be used for ongoing expenses such as salaries: “the minute you start obligating 1 time monies, which is what reserves are, then you’re setting yourself up for failure,” he said.

Christopher described how different funds are treated: some enterprise funds (landfill, ambulance, emergency communications) maintain higher reserves for capital projects, while smaller or volatile funds (PILT, opioid settlement funds, certain trust funds) are harder to predict. He noted recent, unanticipated receipts in several funds — including about $1,000,000 in PILT money — and described the justice fund’s recent pattern of building reserves because of staffing turnover in the sheriff’s office, prosecutors and the jail.

Commissioners asked for clarification about the target fund balance and timing of revenue. Christopher said the target is a percentage of yearly expenditures (commonly 25% for roughly three months of reserves) and reiterated that property-tax collections are a stable revenue source: “Our taxes always come in,” he said. He also reiterated that revenue projections remain conservative because of past volatility in interest income and other sources.

On the master plan, Christopher said the reserves appear to give the county flexibility to fund one-time master-plan expenditures and that commissioners and staff can revisit specific requests during the budget process. “We can talk about it a little bit more when we get into budget meetings,” he told the board.

Ending: The board did not take formal action on the fund-balance report; staff will carry the fund-balance figures into the budget cycle for more detailed review of master-plan funding requests.