Lawrence County approves $20 million budget for 2022

Biggest fiscal increase found in court administration; health department also gets bump for coming year
 
The Lawrence County Commission and other leaders of county departments approved a $20 million budget for Lawrence County for 2022 at a brief budget hearing on Wednesday, Jan. 13, at the historic Lawrence County Courthouse.
According to information provided by Tammy Riebe, Lawrence County clerk, the county projects to have a total of $29,723,763.04 in total funds for the year, and total expenditures of $20,004,122.38.
The funds include a beginning balance of $15,782,808.20, combined with a projected total of $13,940,954.84 in revenue.
The 2022 budget has $8,507,469.54 in approved expenditures from the general revenue fund, a decrease of $225,091.55 from the actual expenditures for 2021.
Most county governments actually have an increase in approved expenses for the year. The total general county government approved expenses in the general fund will be $1,668,175.33, an increase of $549,257.63 over last year’s actual expenses of $1,118,917.70.

Court administration
The biggest increase will be in court administration, which has approved expenses of $289,535, an increase of over seven times of its actual expenses of $25,102.98 in 2021. Other departments seeing an increase will be the County Commission, which has approved expenses of $270,957.63, and the County Clerk’s office, which will have approved expenses of $142,857.34.

Health department
The health department has $863,047.50 in approved expenses for 2022, an increase of about $183,000 over its actual expenses of $680,266.24 from 2021.

Public safety
Public safety will also see an increase; this year there are a total of $4,745,739.60 in approved expenses, an increase of over $230,000 over last year’s actual expenses of $4,515,308.70. The sheriff’s office has $1,792,657.93, an increase of about $90,000 from 2021, and the jail has $1,333,003.04, an increase of about $100,000. The prosecuting attorney’s office, the coroner and the juvenile office all also saw an increase in approved expenses, but the justice center has $649,719.15 in approved funds, a decrease of about $50,000 from last year.

Reduction in some spending
The county will actually see a reduction of about $1 million in spending from other expenses in the general revenue fund. The largest reduction will from a government co-op agreement in 2021 which had $300,000 in actual expenses; those expenses do not appear in the 2022 budget. The county also has budgeted $287,275 for insurance and bonds, a decrease of about $90,000 from last year. Unchanged are the University Extension, which has $40,000 in approved expenses, and the emergency fund, with $150,000.

Complete budget
The complete 2022 Lawrence County budget will be available for viewing online at the Lawrence County Clerk’s office’s webpage at www.lawrencecountymo.org/county-clerk. For more information, call the Lawrence County Clerk’s Office at 417-466-2638 between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.