Coroner informs commissioners of depleted 2012 budget
The Highland County Press
Highland County Coroner Dr. Paul Terrell has notified the Highland County Board of Commissioners that for the second time in as many months, the coroner's office funding has been exhausted.
In a Nov. 23 letter to commissioners Shane Wilkin, Tom Horst and Jeremy Shaffer, Dr. Terrell wrote:
"As you may recall, I notified you on Oct. 15 the coroner's office was completely depleted of operating funds. You deemed it appropriate to move $3,000 from the general fund into the coroner's account.
"I am herewith notifying you that the coroner's office is again depleted of operating funds. Naturally, that necessitates that once again the commissioners must consider moving additional funds into the coroner's budget to keep a mandated office fiscally viable through the balance of the year. I currently hold invoices totaling $1,500. Naturally, I do not know what the balance of the year will bring.
"With a general fund rollover from 2011 of over $400,000 and a present balance of $1.6 million, I find it very difficult to understand why the commissioners have steadfastly insisted on under-funding this office. The obvious net result of which has been to increase the cost to taxpayers quite substantially. I urge you to rethink your policies in the years to come."
In an Oct. 15, 2012 letter to the commissioners, Terrell said the coroner's office budget was "totally depleted."
In reviewing the 2012 budget, Terrell said commissioners had reduced the coroner's office to $71,086.66 for 2012. After subtracting the coroner's salary and the deputy coroner's salary – which are a combined $31,712 – the office was left with an operational budget of $39,374.66, Terrell said.
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"Having no funds with which to operate and commencing immediately, all outstanding unpaid invoices will be forwarded to your office for payment," Terrell said. "Please anticipate autopsies, transportation, office expenses and end-of-year mileage expenses."
"We have a budget number set by the auditor at the beginning of each year of our anticipated revenue ($8.5 million) and we appropriated $8.5 million," Commission President Shane Wilkin told The Highland County Press on Nov. 25.
"We did have a carry-over of $400,000; however, that is far short of recommended carry-over which is around 10 percent. Appropriating carry-over only puts the county in a weaker financial position and I personally am not in favor of that.
"There are other departments that have or will exhaust funds prior to the end of the year," Wilkin said. "The process is the same for all of those departments: Make a request for additional appropriations and that is the process the coroner needs to follow."
On Nov. 9, commissioners responded to the coroner.
"Please be advised that in order to have a paper trail to satisfy the annual audits for the county, and for good general accounting practices, all requests for additional appropriations, transfers, and modifications are required to be submitted along with departmental bills and proper vouchers. The payment of vouchers in the usual fashion from your departmental accounts provides a more accurate cost record of each individual department within the county's general fund.
"We understand that your budget as appropriated by this office has been exhausted. The budgets of other departments, including the sheriff's, the board of elections, and Veterans Services also either currently have, or expect to have, exhausted budgets as well. All of these departments have complied with the requirements of this office by submitting requests for additional appropriations, transfers, modifications and proper vouchers," commissioners said.
"As stated in your letter of Oct. 15, we will make adjustments to the overall general fund budget so that we can pay for the operation of the coroner's office; however, those funds need to flow through the coroner's actual budget for accounting and audit purposes."