DECATUR - Cities in Benton County will soon be paying their proportional cost of the Benton County West budget and county judges’ salaries, thanks to research done by Decatur Mayor Charles Linam.
Two years ago, Linam approached Benton County West Judge Jeff Conner about why the city of Decatur was paying more into the court’s budget then other municipalities around the county.
Conner’s response, “This system was set according to State of Arkansas statutes and it can only be changed by law.”
Linam and Decatur city officials reviewed the state statutes and found a discrepancy. According to Linam, the state statute said, “Each city will pay its proportionate share.”
Not content with the answers he was getting from Benton County, Linam took his case to the state officials who oversee the county court system.
Linam restated his question,“Why is the city of Decatur paying more into the Benton County Court West budget?”
Upon review of the statutes in question, state officials agreed with Linam that the current system needed to be changed.
When Linam went back to Benton County Court West officials, he found that “attitudes had changed and maybe we could get something done.” He stated, “Almost immediately, Judge Conner did get Highfill to pay an extra $5,000 and us to pay $5,000 less on Benton County Court West budget.”
Linam next turned to the issue of county judges’ salaries. Since cities in Benton County pay funds directly to the state, the Decatur mayor was directed to the Department of Finance and Administration.
“The only way to get those proportions changed is through the Intergovernmental Council,” DFA officials said.
Linam met with Benton County Judge Bob Clinard. Clinard agreed, “Anybody can see that’s not right.”
In March, the Intergovernmental Council met to discuss the problem. They appointed a committee, chaired by Lowell Mayor Eldon Long, to devise a formula that would allow cities to pay their proportionate share of the county judges’ salaries.
The committee considered three options, either pay by the case load, by population, or by combining both options and averaging them out. The council chose the latter, to take both case load and population and average them to get the proportionate share of the judges’ salaries each city would pay.
“If they had gone by (Decatur) population, our share would have been $2,053,”Linam said. “If they went by case load, ours would have been $2,699.”
Under the new formula, Decatur’s share would drop to $2,377.
“We are very happy with this. It saves us $4,300 per year,” Linam said.
Other cities like Sulphur Springs stand to benefit from the new formula as well. Its proportionate share was cut in half under the new plan. Gentry, which was paying a similar amount as Decatur under the old system, will save nearly $1,500 a year.
As for Benton County, which was paying $75,000, under the new formula that amount will drop to $42,000 a year.
When factoring the savings from both the $5,000 cut from its part in the Benton County West budget and $4,300 cut in its portion of the judges’ salaries, Decatur stands to save a total of $9,270 a year.
“The only thing I was concerned with was Decatur; I knew we were paying too much,” Linam said.
With the new system in place, Linam was pleased with the outcome. His pursuit of a fair method for paying both judges’ salaries and the Benton County Court West budget will ultimately save small municipalities considerable revenue while making larger cities pay their fair share.
News, Pages 3 on 07/31/2013