Amid rapidly increasing inflation, Park County officials on Monday began preliminary discussions of their budgets for fiscal year 2022-23.

The county is looking at some increased costs in this upcoming budget, the most notable of which are in training, materials and travel expenses. 

The cost of basic materials, such as office supplies, has gone up significantly. Departments like Public Works have to account for the cost of building materials, which have also seen a large cost increase.

County engineer Brian Edwards said the rising cost of materials and supplies resulted in increased spending of about $8,000 over last year.

“We ended up going above our budget last year,” he said.

Due to higher training costs, a larger amount of the Sheriff’s Office budget dedicated to that category will be required to provide sufficient training, according to Park County Sheriff Scott Steward.

One of the common concerns of the officials at the meeting was the rising cost of travel, specifically the cost of gas, diesel, oil and tires.

“We spent about $11,000 [on fuel] this year, and we don’t see it getting that much better,” said Edwards. 

Steward said while the Sheriff’s Office anticipates being affected by higher gas prices, his staff is trying to keep costs to a minimum

 “We are going to try to do things to mitigate some of that fuel and travel,” he said, noting that to that end, patrols have been minimized and other county resources have been used to transport inmates.

Increases in certain categories can be attributed to the fact that this year is a midterm election year, meaning the county will see an increase in costs associated with elections, such as materials, election judges’ training and pay as well as advertising and postage. 

“We added to the materials and supplies because of ballots, ballot paper, ballot stock and all of that because it is an election year,” said County Clerk Colleen Renner.

“In 2020, in the presidential election, we had over 17,000 voters.  We have to anticipate that’s what we’re going to have this next year,” she said.

She added that while Park County’s midterm election voter turnout is usually about 9,000, the county has to anticipate 17,000 voters in the upcoming election.

“That’s in election law, in Chapter 22,” she said. “We have to do 10% over what we voted in the prior year.”

The uncertainty of the country’s economic future makes planning the budget difficult, said Clerk of District Court Patra Lindenthal.

“Hopefully it’s sufficient,” she said of the budget, “but we don’t have a crystal ball.” 

The county’s budget is preliminary at this point.  The final budget will be presented at the Park County Commissioners’ regular meeting on July 11.