State budget cuts will have an estimated $1.3 million impact on Navajo County, the Board of Supervisors learned Tuesday.
The total is in addition to state budget impacts from previous fiscal years that will continue through the 2011-12 fiscal year.
Government Relations Administrator Hunter Moore told the board that more information will be available by the next board meeting in two weeks, but it appears the biggest impact is to Highway User Revenue Funds (HURF), which are usually used to help repair and maintain roads. Statewide, the total shifted from HURF to fund the Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS) is nearly $20.9 million. The estimated impact to Navajo County is $746,317.
The cost of restoring individuals accused of crimes to competency at the state hospital is shifted to counties at a total estimated cost of $5.1 million statewide. Navajo County’s estimated cost for restoration treatment in fiscal year 2012 is $354,288. A report from the County Supervisors Association notes that the estimate is based on actual costs in 2010.
Other county impacts in the state budget are less than $100,000 each. They include a reduction in the state’s contribution to salaries for justices of the peace and an increase in the county’s share of treating sexually violent predators at the Arizona State Hospital.
Statewide savings to the state in reducing contributions to salaries for justices of the peace is $1.1 million. The impact to Navajo County is estimated at $99,089.
Treatment of sexually violent predators has slowly been shifting from a state responsibility to one borne by the county in which the individual was prosecuted. The cost will be split 50/50 between counties and the state under the budget. Savings to the state by shifting more of the cost in fiscal year 2011-12 is estimated at $6.2 million. The cost to Navajo County is expected to be $88,394.
Navajo County, along with several other less populous counties, escaped additional proposed cuts and cost shifts. Five of these counties, including Maricopa, Mohave, Pima, Pinal and Yavapai, will be required to transfer money to the state’s general fund. The amount varies by county, ranging from $26.3 million for Maricopa County to $1.3 million for Mohave.
The state’s motor vehicle division will also be partially funded by those same five counties, with HURF shifts totaling $12.3 million divided based on population.
A proposal to shift prisoners serving less than one year to the counties was put on hold, but remains part of a proposal for the 2012-13 budget.
