"The main thing is the increased cost of services. We're in a pretty dynamic community right now. In order to maintain good people, we have to increase salaries," said Burleigh County Auditor Kevin Glatt of the 2009 budget.

"We are competing with everbody … In order to compete with the market, we've got to pay accordingly." He said 80 percent of expenses involve salaries and benefits.

This coming year, a 4 percent cost of living increase has been added for Burleigh County's 280 employees. The county will pay $700,000 more for salaries.

The county will be further challenged to absorb health insurance premium increases of 14 percent.

The county will carry 75 percent of the insurance increases, said Glatt.

They are part of the county's $39.57 million operation costs proposed for next year through a mill levy of 62.89 mills. The mill levy is down about 10 mills from what was levied a decade ago.

Of that, general fund expenses total just more than $10 million. "General fund expenditures are up about $300,000," said Glatt. He said fuel, utilities, salaries and benefits all play into the costs.

He said the county park budget was decreased by nearly by nearly 2 mills.

"There are no big ticket items. It's mainly operations," Glatt said.

He said there are the standard vehicle purchases needed to replace the sheriff's office fleet and for other vehicle needs as part of the annual vehicle replacement schedule.

"We have $144,000 budgeted for vehicles for the sheriff's department," Glatt said.

"The big budgets are the sheriff and detention. The sheriff's office budget is $3.098 million. That's increase over $2.8 million for the 2008 budget. It's an increase attributable to increased costs. There is fuel, utilities and normal operations.

He said expenses did decrease for the Burleigh County jail from $2.025 million to $1.8 million. "We got a better contract for prisoners' meals. We've done some changes on how we provide medical services for the prisoners," Glatt explained.

He said department heads may be willing to forgo an additional dispatcher and full-time social services worker for the department. Glatt said their cuts are being considered.

The Burleigh County Social Services budget has been increased by $300,000.

Glatt said the county has proposed replacing one motor grader for the road department at a cost of $245,000, a new loader for $190,000 which replaces older equipment.

Nearly $3 million has been directed toward rural road projects, but these will not be prioritized until February. These include paving, gravel and snow traps. According to Glatt, there may be some bridge projects in the near future.

"Eighty percent of our budget is salaries and benefits," Glatt said. "We don't provide a product; we provide a service.To provide services, it's people. The cost of providing the service has increased."

He said to meet all those demands, the county will need to deficit spend some $600,000 by using general reserve fund money.

"We will still keep the reserve funds at an adequate level. For a county this size, we try to keep it at 30 percent of the annual expenditures."

"The concern is that a majority of our expenditures are ongoing expenditures. It's not really prudent to be using reserves to fund ongoing expenditures …"

He said the primary source of revenue for the county comes from property tax and from the state.

The Social Services budget is one that relies heavily on federal and state reimbursments, according to Glatt.

He said overall property valuations throughout the county have increased an average of 10 percent. Glatt said that has been a trend in recent years for residential and commercial properties. "Farmland has remained pretty stable, but we've seen a lot of growth in Burleigh County" he said. "We have been very fortunate."

Glatt hinted that there are indicators that growth could level. "Right now, that projection for next year is 4 percent for an increase in valuation." The 2009 valuations are what the 2010 taxes will be based upon.

Glatt said the owner of a home valued at $150,000 in 2006, could expect to pay $43.66 more in taxes on their county portion of the 2009 tax statement. "That same house is now worth about $175,000," Glatt said.

Burleigh County receives about 13 percent of property tax revenue. The city of Bismarck takes in 22 percent, the Bismarck School District receives 56 percent of the tax dollar and the Bismarck Park District is allotted about 9 percent of property tax revenue.

"Our revenue income isn't what it was in previous years. Our interest income is down considerably from what it's been in previous years."

He said interests have decreased considerbly in the past two years. He said reserves can be invested.

Residents may comment on the Burleigh County Budget at 5:15 Sept. 25 at Tom Baker room of the City/County Building in Bismarck.

(LeAnn Eckroth can be reached at leann.eckroth@;bismarcktribune.com or 250-8264.)