The Starke County Motor Vehicle Highway Fund is expected to experience a funding shortfall.
Highway Superintendent Rik Ritzler explained to the commissioners last week that the state auditor’s estimates show $300,000 less in funding for the rest of 2018. The fund will also be $300,000 less next year.
“The result of that is because of the higher fuel prices and people are using less gas. We’re getting less money from that. Also, a couple of the estimates last year were a little too high that they gave us. The state auditor is traditionally conservative in giving estimates so we tend to get more than what they estimate, but we’re not going to assume that,” said Ritzler.
While that is bad news, Ritzler said there is some good news to come out of the announcement.
“The good news is we’ve got a $300,000 cushion. The better news is we don’t think we need to use that. Because of our asset management plan, we believe we have the flexibility to cover that shortfall and we’ve readjusted things a little bit. At the next meeting and the council meeting, because we’re going to be talking about our budget for next year, we’re going to give you a little presentation to see what we’re going to do next year and the things we’ve revised.”
Ritzler is confident that the department will NOT have to significantly reduce services with this shortfall.
