BISBEE — The Cochise County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday adopted the tentative $194.2 million fiscal year 2008-2009 budget, but a change was added at the last minute.

A proposal for a $31,000 electronic gate at the county complex was eliminated.

Though the supervisors had discussed giving employees another cash disbursement at a work session last week, it failed to pass at Tuesday’s meeting.

Also eliminated were the transfers from county special tax district funds to fund state requests to meet the $2.2 billion deficit. Instead of using money from the floodplain and library special district taxes as had been discussed at the work session, County Administrator Mike Ortega decided to use the county’s contingency fund to make up the shortfall, as was suggested by a representative with the County Supervisors Association of Arizona.

Though Supervisor Paul Newman tried to add the $261 per employee disbursement in the budget, Supervisor Pat Call and board Chairman Richard Searle agreed they needed a better handle on possible future obstacles before committing to a second employee disbursement.

“I feel the burden on our employees is considerable,” Searle said. “But I find it very difficult to support it at this time. We have stretched the budget as far as we can … To hit our budget again at this time, I can’t support it. I’m very understanding of the request. On the other hand, our employees need to take a look at the bigger picture.”

Searle and Call plan to look at the budget toward the end of the year and see how revenues are doing. If the economy looks capable of supporting the $275,000 needed for a second disbursement, they agreed to take another look.

Newman cautioned that next year may look no better if the state knocks on the door again with an outstretched hand.

“There could be another one-or-two-billion-dollar deficit again next year,” Newman warned.

Ortega responded, “I understand the concern Mr. Newman is expressing. But the one-time disbursement of $500 per employee or allowing them to take three days off is recognizing them. If we look at this in December or January, we may also get an idea of what the state will be doing next year. The state balanced the budget by throwing costs from 2008-09 into 2009-10.”

Searle noted that $11 million in carry-forwards of the legislators and the governor’s office were not touched to help balance the state budget. The supervisors did not approve adding a $145,000 increase in estimated revenues that could come from assessor storage and retrieval fund fees that have yet to be established. Cochise County is one of the last counties to enact such a fee. That money would be used to pay costs incurred for continuing the GIS mapping system of the county.

Searle was concerned the fees were not noticed on the agenda.

“It’s an additional tax,” he said.

Call added, “My inclination is to support the fees. My sense is to wait.”

The county had a balanced budget until the state sent a request for $1.3 million to balance its budget. The county’s budget also was balanced until new figures for fuel were estimated. Fuel costs alone account for more than $1.2 million, Ortega said. That $2.5 million hit was hard to overcome, yet the county officials and department heads took on the task of cutting even more from their budgets. “This represents a bare-bones budget,” Ortega noted.

In other budget business, the supervisors approved the highway and floodplain budget of $4.4 million, the library budget of $1.785 million and all of the light district budgets.

The supervisors tabled the approval of an interim Series No. 10 (wine and beer store) liquor license as submitted by Shantel Alanis. Katie Howard, clerk to the Board of Supervisors, said Alanis submitted the license application in her name, but she is not the owner of the Store n More property in Bowie. The actual owner, Peter Cimino, lives in Nevada. There was also a contradiction in the name as new signage for P.J. Travel Center has been erected replacing Store n More. Alanis also has not paid the $100 processing fee. Howard recommended tabling the application until the correct information is obtained and the processing fee is paid. The supervisors did approve the transfer of a Series No. 9 (liquor store) liquor license as submitted by Leonel Campas for the Los Campas Market in Pearce.

The board also unanimously approved a resolution to call for an election to reorganize the Sunsites/Pearce Fire District from an elected fire chief and secretary/treasurer to an elected five-member governing board as requested by residents within the district. They say the area has grown and costs have increased. They believe they would be better served by an elected board.

The residents were able to meet the 269 required signatures of qualified electors and actually ended with 310. The measure will be placed on the Nov. 4 ballot.

On the Net:

Cochise County government:  cochise.az.gov/

In other business

The Cochise County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday:

• Agreed to hold a work session for a review of the cost effectiveness of the building code for the county and phase-in areas, examine actual data compared to projected data and note challenges and successes.

• Approved the renewal of the contract between the county attorney’s office and Arizona Automobile Theft Authority Grant Program agreement in the amount of $80,000.

• Approved the renewal of a Crime Victim Assistance Grant Agreement in the amount of $16,000 between the county attorney’s office and Arizona Criminal Justice Commission.

• Approved the renewal of the $66,770 Crime Victim Compensation Grant and the county attorney’s office.

• Approved the renewal of a $167,425 grant agreement between the Cochise County Attorney’s Office and Byrne Justice Assistance Grant.

• Approved the re-appointment of Chris Kemmerly, Ed Mozingo and Dennis Moroney to the Public Lands Advisory Committee.

• Approved the renewal of a contract between the county and SouthEastern Area Governments Organization in the amount of $248,888 for the next fiscal year.

• Approved an intergovernmental agreement in the amount of $37,812 paid by the city of Tombstone for the Sheriff’s Office to continue providing dispatch services for the Tombstone Marshal’s Office.