BISBEE — The county Board of Supervisors began budget talks last week and looked to balance a $195,633,026 plan for the 2009 to 2010 fiscal year.

Mike Ortega, county administrator, told Supervisors Pat Call, Ann English and Richard Searle the county may end up with a $469,107 shortfall in the current year’s budget that could be eliminated with money from the general fund contingency.

For the new fiscal year beginning July 1, the county is looking at a $2.8 million cut in just general fund revenues from state sales tax and the half-cent sales tax.

So, Ortega asked each department director to cut 11.5 percent acrossthe board from their respective budgets. Maintaining the county’s job vacancies will save around $1.2 million. Cost cuts in operations by 8 percent for a total of $500,000, additional fuel savings at $339,000 and postponing departmental decision packages for a year will help bring revenues and expenses into balance.

The supervisors started talks with the Highway and Floodplain Department which is funded almost entirely from Highway User Revenue Funds. Director Bennie Young presented his nearly $18 million budget reflecting $2 million in cuts by the state. The county also lost over $3 million last year from this revenue source.

The state has been cutting HURF money making it difficult for rural areas to maintain or improve roads. Due to this decline in funding, there will be no major projects on the books this year. Young has scheduled work on 100 lane miles of chip sealing for portions of Palominas Road, Moson Road, Double Adobe, Davis Road and others in the county. He also worked 37 miles of dirt roads into the schedule for reshaping. Those include Leslie Canyon, Airport Road, Turkey Creek Road, Barataria and others. A project on Davis Road will be funded with stimulus money.

Revenue also comes from the vehicle license tax, but even that fund source has fallen by around $200,000, according to Young.

A third source of revenue comes through agreements with Bisbee, Benson, Douglas, Tombstone and Willcox. This accounts for $1.196 million in revenues for the department, Young said. The money covers all costs associated with the road projects, so it is not a profitable endeavor for the county.

Young also recommended a moratorium be placed on any new public-private partnerships due to funding shortfalls and a reduced staff. The department has 12 open positions, and with the hiring freeze those positions will not be filled.

After discussions with county library director Lise Gilliland and looking at the department’s $2.2 million budget, Searle pushed for a 3-cent reduction in the library district tax rate. The library has built up half-a-million dollars in carry forward that he said should be used this year.

Gilliland indicated firewall software at the county libraries needed to be upgraded, though she wasn’t sure how much that would cost. Since library patrons have a great interest in genealogy and learning a foreign language, she also is recommending the purchase of databases for those activities.

What to do with people who die and have no money to pay for burials was a topic of discussion by Cochise Aging and Social Services Director Mary Gomez. She suggested opting for cremation rather than burial which would provide a savings of $40,000 annually that would help her budget. The cremains would be buried. If the deceased person has family, they could arrange for other services.

Ortega and Gomez said they would research the subject to find out what is legal and appropriate for the handling of cremains. They suggested seeking bids from funeral homes and cemeteries to handle such services.

Gomez also was concerned with increasing costs for mental health professionals contracted through the Southeastern Arizona Behavioral Health Services for court-appointed therapy and treatment. She estimated that part of her budget to cost more than $300,000.

The budget talks are a long way from over and will continue over the next several weeks.

Cochise County budget talks are open to the public and are held in the conference room in the supervisors building at the county complex on Melody Lane. To find out which budgets are scheduled, check the Web site at http://www.co.cochise.az.us/ccwebsite/PublicNotice.asp for the work sessions or call the county at 432-9200.