Nueces County budget workshop: officials warn road fund will shrink as motor-vehicle sales-tax receipts shift to general fund

NUECES COUNTY — County commissioners and staff on Tuesday examined the Road and Bridge and Engineering budgets and were told the road fund is projected to decline by $566,066 by the end of the fiscal year, driven in part by a phased change in how the state routes motor-vehicle sales-tax collection fees.

At a budget workshop, finance staff distributed estimated actuals for 2011–12 and projected revenues for 2012–13. Peggy, a county finance staff member, said the state has been ‘‘phasing in’’ a change that lets the motor-vehicle sales-tax collection fee be deposited into the county general fund rather than directly into the road fund. ‘‘This is something we have no control over,’’ Peggy said, explaining the shift reduces an item that historically flowed into road funding and instead shows up as transfers from the general fund.

The change creates timing and accounting differences. Commissioners pressed staff about a roughly $90,000 shortfall this year and asked, ‘‘Where do we put the $90,000 back? Where do we draw that out of the general fund and put it back in the road?’’ The county’s approach, staff said, has been to transfer to the road fund based on prior-year actual deposits rather than on projections, which staff said avoids overcommitting transfers but can leave line-item differences in any single budget year.

Peggy told the court the county has historically budgeted about $2,000,000 tied to motor-vehicle collections and that the remaining phase‑out of direct deposits into the road fund will continue over the coming years. Staff projected the road fund’s ending balance will fall by $566,066 in the current fiscal year, a decline they attributed to road‑fund operations outpacing revenues. ‘‘The decline in the fund balance is strictly due to road fund operations,’’ Peggy said.

On expenditures, staff described line-item changes requested by road staff. Glenn, a county road employee, had sought an increase of about $145,000 in maintenance/repairs; staff increased that line by $116,000 while reducing a separate capital/sewer project line by $237,000 and reallocating funds elsewhere. Overall, the Road and Bridge budget in the packet showed a net decrease of about $100,000 from the prior year, though commissioners’ precinct budgets for road functions were increased by $200,000 to provide an additional $250,000 available for repairs each year.

Commissioners also questioned whether general sales-tax arrangements with the regional transit authority would affect property-tax rollback calculations. Finance staff said that keeping county sales tax to fund operations could affect rollback calculations, but that the county had previously granted some county sales-tax authority to the RTA, so the specific sales-tax streams discussed here do not change the county’s rollback calculation.

No formal vote was recorded in the workshop segment of the meeting. Staff said they would correct formula errors in the budget worksheets and reconcile transfers and beginning- and ending‑fund-balance figures before formal adoption steps.

The court opened the meeting with the pledge and introduced Lance, the county’s new risk manager: ‘‘He is the Nueces County Risk Manager,’’ Tyner said as the court welcomed Lance to the position. The budget workshop then proceeded into a detailed review of Road and Bridge and Engineering revenues and expenditures.

The workshop did not include formal decisions on the items discussed; staff will return corrected worksheets and final proposals later in the budget process.