Commissioners move to set hearing after staff find $1.2 million construction‑program gap

County staff informed commissioners that a discrepancy exists between the adopted budget and the annual construction/6‑year transportation program: the budget lists $11,400,000 while the construction program lists $12,600,000, creating a $1,200,000 gap.

Unidentified Speaker 7 (staff) said the difference must be reconciled so the county’s certificate of good compliance and related reports are accurate. Staff explained that the $1.2 million gap primarily affects road‑fund match dollars: the county currently shows $2,400,000 in road fund money intended to match about $10,000,000 in grant funds and would need to reduce the road‑fund portion by $1,200,000 unless the budget is adjusted.

Speaker 7 outlined an administrative approach: set a hearing to amend the annual construction program now (to correct the delinquency with the state) and revisit budget amendments in April if commissioners want to restore projects later. "It's got to be road fund money because with grant money ... it balances out," Speaker 7 said.

Staff identified a set of lower‑priority or placeholder projects that could be removed from the annual program to meet the required number of projects — noting the list would shrink from roughly 25–27 projects to about nine — and recommended the commission authorize a hearing and subsequent advertisement. Commissioners asked staff to show a prioritized list with ballpark costs and to schedule the hearing promptly to avoid missing reporting deadlines.

No formal vote was recorded at the briefing; staff will prepare the hearing notice, a prioritized project list, and an explanatory briefing on tradeoffs and potential impacts to grant projects.