Commissioners approve payments to cover state underbilling and authorize nearly $1.9 million roof expenditure

County finance staff reported an administrative underbilling by the State Department of Assessments and Taxation that produced a cumulative deficit. Pat Merritt (speaker 6) told commissioners the state underbilled the county for prior services and asked for a one-time allocation of $56,120 from contingency to cover prior-year charges and $21,637 from the fund balance for the recurring portion. "I'm here to request, you to approve $56,120 out of contingency funds," Merritt said.

Commissioners discussed follow-up with state offices, including the comptroller, to inquire whether the county could dispute or recover amounts, but they also noted the county must satisfy the bill. The board voted to approve the requested contingency and fund-balance allocations.

Separately, finance staff (Bob Gas, speaker 11) requested authorization to move the Wharton School roof project from the proposed FY27 budget into FY26 and to allocate $1,894,458 from the FY26 general fund balance to complete the roof this year. Commissioner (speaker 3) moved the authorization, which passed by voice vote. "So that's the request as simple as I can make it," Bob Gas said of the funding transfer.

Both approvals were recorded by voice vote; no individual roll-call tallies were provided in the meeting transcript. Commissioners asked staff to pursue clarification with state contacts about the underbilling and to report back if recovery or adjustments were possible.