By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Budget season is underway for local taxing entities. One goal is to remain revenue neutral - or collect no more dollars than the year before. Barton County was revenue neutral in 2022, and actually collected less tax dollars in 2023 than in 2022. Barton County Sheriff Brian Bellendir said the plan going forward is to help the county remain revenue neutral but it's not always easy.
"This next year's going to be pretty tight," he said. "They're trying to remain revenue neutral and I had to give my employees a pretty substantial jump in pay just to keep up with what the police department here and in the city of Ellinwood are paying. My detention staff was starting at, I think, $0.50 less than Walmart night stockers were."
The sheriff's office is in a unique position because of the services it provides. Two or three patrol cars are typically patrolling 904 square miles of county roads at all hours of the day, racking up large fuel bills. Then there are the many variables of housing inmates at the Barton County Jail.
"You've got to do laundry for 60 people all week long," Bellendir said. "You have to have three meals a day for 60 people all day long. You have to get everybody to their doctor's appointments and court appearances. Aside from the law enforcement side of it, I have a really unique budget because you don't know what I'm going to have to buy."
Bellendir said there are currently between 60 and 70 inmates at the jail, but that number has climbed as high as 110. Other budget variables include large crimes or weather events that can increase overtime pay. As the sheriff's office does not make any money from traffic citations, writing more tickets is not a way to generate more revenue.