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Davis County controller outlines tight margins in budget "stress test" and flags health-insurance, contingency and transfers
Summary
Controller Curtis Coe told the Budget Committee the controller's office is 100% statutory, reported modest net savings from recent attrition but said health-insurance loss ratios and a $3 million transfer for jail medical create pressure that will force cuts to travel, training, technology and possibly personnel if merit/COLA is required.
Curtis Coe, Davis County controller, told the Budget Committee on June 26 that the controller's office functions are largely mandated by statute and that the countywide "stress test" scenario requires modest reductions but exposes structural risks.
Coasted through the required calculations during a nine-minute presentation, Coe said the office saw a recent retirement it will not replace, producing roughly $31,620 in net savings. Under the hypothetical funding scenario used for the exercise, Coe said the requested reduction equated to about 0.66% (roughly negative $15,000) for his office; after accounting for projected merit and cost-of-living adjustments he still needs to identify roughly $13,444 in additional reductions.
Coe recommended cutting travel, education and training ($5,000), slowing the replacement rotation for computer equipment and trimming allocations and professional/technical expenses where prudent. He warned that some items are highly variable — for example, board-of-equalization hearing officer costs ranged from about $7,000 in 2022 to $26,000 in 2023 — and could require supplemental funding in an appeal year.
Coe also flagged county health-insurance costs as a significant pressure point: the county's first-quarter loss ratio is about 115%, and last year's third-quarter loss ratio reached roughly 143%, meaning claims have recently exceeded premiums. "When you have a loss ratio like that ... I'm very concerned about if we continue to have loss ratios elevated above 100% then I'm going to see personnel costs drive up," Coe said.
The controller noted a $3,000,000 transfer from fund balance to an internal service fund to support jail medical expenses and reminded the committee that debt service and certain contractual obligations (mail, DMV printing and other statutory notices) are difficult to trim without operational impact. Coe urged commissioners to weigh the trade-off between reducing contingency and the administrative burden of frequent budget openings.
Next steps: Coe offered one-on-one follow-ups with departments and asked commissioners to prioritize whether merit and COLA must be funded, because those decisions will determine whether savings must come from personnel or capital/project budgets.
