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PARKERSBURG -- The county saw a significant budget carryover that started the new fiscal year, due to the state taking over the Wood County Holding Center last year.
Wood County commissioners discussed the budget carryover during Thursday's commission meeting.
Officials said the county originally budgeted a carryover of $800,000 to start the new fiscal year on July 1. Officials said they ended up with over $140,000 beyond that.
The carryover in the budget is the amount the commission believes it will need to pay bills before revenue starts coming in, Commission President Blair Couch said.
"It covers our immediate cash needs," he said.
Over the past few years, the county has cut funding amounts to local festivals and other items the county had traditionally supplied funding for. They have also kept an eye on expenses in the county offices, addressed insurance and other costs. The county hired someone to audit its regional jail bills and found the county was overcharged thousands of dollars in housing prisoners at the North Central Regional Jail in Doddridge County.
However, a big savings was realized when the state took over operations at the Wood County Holding Center last year.
"We have to credit the governor (Jim Justice) and (West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety (DMAPS) Secretary) Jeff Sandy for taking over our holding center," Couch said. "We saved a significant amount of money (in transportation and manpower costs)."
Early estimates had the county saving around $600,000 during the first year, but Couch said the actual figure won't be determined until the facility has been under state control for a full year.
With the money freed up from going to the holding center, the county was able to hire three deputy sheriffs and give the deputies a significant pay raise to compete with the local municipalities.
"We were able to pour that back into our frontline law enforcement," Couch said.
Even with a bigger than expected carryover, the county is still focused on controlling expenses. The commission will discuss what it can do with the extra money from the carryover. Couch said they could use it to make payments on their building bonds or pay off a loan.
"We would use the cost savings to reduce our expenses," he said.
The best ways to generate new revenue for the county will come from business development throughout the county, including the Hino expansion, development in the Mineral Wells/Pettyville area and other developments around the county, Couch said.
"There are a lot of good things happening," Couch said. "We are on the right path as we begin a new fiscal year.
"Things are better, but we are not there yet. It is going to take a couple years of good economy, improved land sales and improved land evaluation for us to really see the benefit. We still need additional ways to generate income and it should not be on the backs of property owners," Couch said.
Brett Dunlap can be reached at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com