Gage County establishes requirements for entities seeking county funds

BEATRICE – Organizations or entities seeking Gage County government funding will have to jump through a couple of hoops but won’t have to submit individual claims for county money they spend.

That was the result of a Gage County Board vote today, which requires those largely non-profit entities to submit a summary of their past year’s income and expenses, plus a projected budget.

County Supervisors have been discussing the issue, after concerns raised by Nebraska State audit personnel looking at the county’s budget. Gage County Board member Terry Jurgens feels a budget summary and projection should be enough.  "It would make perfectly good sense to do it this way. It would give the auditor what he wants because it would show on the expense side where it went...and it would show on the income side, where the donations came from."

Jurgens says the organizations probably deserve a small increase on their requests, having their requested amounts held flat during the payoff of a huge federal civil rights judgment by the county.  Board Chairman Erich Tiemann and County Clerk Dawn Hill says the county has been flagged because of inability to trace how some money is spent…which makes the claims process important.

State Senator Myron Dorn, an Appropriations Committee member, says the county is not alone in the problem. State agencies are also being asked to better demonstrate what is done with public funds…with traceability the key factor.  

"There's basically ten billion dollars out there in the last two years that the state of Nebraska does not have that, so-called...I bought a coffee with that dollar. That's what they're looking for when they do the audit. Many of these entities....we have trust in them, we have faith in them...but do all of the people have faith in them that they are spending those dollars exactly as they should be."

Dorn says the claims process is a check and balance on government spending…and there is a general move toward more accountability for taxpayer funding.
"Ten years ago, they sent in a request for ten-thousand dollars...we'll mail you the check two weeks later when we approve it. That is not in the eye of traceability, or in the eye of are we making sure we can be accountable for those tax dollars as they go out?"

Board member Gary Lytle is concerned about burdening entities that do a lot of good, locally. "There's only so many donated hours that people want to be out there and want to do things. If now, all of a sudden, they've got to spend an hour of their donated time to do this, instead of doing what their objective is, then to me that's a problem. I want the traceability...I agree....but I also want that entity to do what their goal is, as opposed to doing bookwork to satisfy the funding process."

Supervisor Dave Swavely expressed some concern that without the claims process, the problems pointed out by state auditors will not be solved.  Senator Dorn says there’s no simple answer to accountability and he admits the state hasn’t done well enough in its own review of how funds spent.

The county board defeated an amendment to require non county agencies to submit claims by a vote of 3-4…..and then approved the requirement for past year’s expenses and revenue and a projected budget, on a 7-0 vote.