So what were Jefferson County's final expenditures and revenues for 2012? The Budget Management Division discussed with the commissioners the figures at staff briefings on April 9. Both revenues and expenses were below what was approved in the budget.

In 2012, the county's projected amended revenue was $473.3 million, but it actually received $467.7 million. Taxes and fees came in at or about what were budgeted, but the county received less intergovernmental revenues, which includes state and federal grants.

Part of the variance was also due to the transfer of capital assets from the former internal service funds of Information Technologies and Facilities to the general fund at year end to account for closure of those funds. This credit entry by the Accounting Office caused the "other revenues" line item to be down. Because the two internal service funds closed, $4.5M was transferred into the General Fund to be held in reserve for 2012 year end and then transferred out to appropriate funds in January 2013.

The amended expenditure was $564.2 million, but the county only spent $495.3 million. Some of the decrease is due to the county's continued conservative approach to underspending its budget for the long-term health of the county's finances. Included in the expenditures was $87.7 million budgeted for capital improvements. Only $22 million was spent. The variance will be carried forwarded into the 2013 budget, pending approval from the BCC, to be used to complete multi-year capital improvement projects. The county also spent $1.6 million less than it budgeted for the presidential election.

It is also important to note that the revenue and expenditure totals include inter-fund transfers. These are charges between funds that are used to account for goods or services provided by one department or agency to other departments or agencies of the county on a cost reimbursement basis. These internal or inter-fund transaction balances are netted or eliminated from the county's financial totals, but must still be accounted for. After removing inter-fund transfers, the county's actual revenues were $358.9 million and expenditures were $371.6 million. Since there is a difference in the revenues and expenditures, the county used its unrestricted fund balance to balance the budget.

At the end of the calendar year, the Jefferson County Budget is finished, however, due to things such as billing cycles, unforeseen expenses or even multi-year projects, some funds need to be adjusted for the previous year's budget or reallocated into the next year's budget. Staff discussed these supplementary budget items for the 2012 budget and the 2013 appropriations, which were up for approval at the BCC's April 16 hearing.

For more information on the Jeffco budget, please visit www.jeffco.us/budget.

The BCC at its April 2 hearing approved the 2013 Community Development Action Plan. The action plan lists projects and activities that were recommended by the Community Development Advisory Board (CDAB) that will be funded by 2013 Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) and HOME Investment Partnership Program (HOME) grants.

Recommended projects include: 

• $115,000 (HOME) to provide and develop homeownership opportunities for low- to moderate-income populations.
• $139,500 (CDBG) to provide public services for low- to moderate-income populations.
• $100,000 (CDBG) to provide emergency and rehab improvements for low- to moderate-income homeowners.
• $175,000.00 (CDBG) and $574,850 (HOME) to increase and/or sustain available affordable rental housing for low- to moderate-income populations.
• $275,000 (CDBG) to improve public facilities and infrastructure serving low- to moderate-income populations.  

To learn more about these grants and the Community Development Office, visit http://jeffco.us/commdev.

In 2012, for the presidential election, 80 percent of Jeffco voters chose to cast their ballots by mail even though they had the option to vote early or at the polls. This yielded a record of more than 250,000 mail ballots cast in that election. In fact, Jefferson County has the highest mail-in ballot volume of any Colorado county.

Not only do voters prefer to vote by mail, but it also significantly cuts down on the costs of an election. There are no election judges to recruit, train and pay, there are no polling places to procure, and the administrative costs are much less.

It is estimated that the mail ballot election, will cost the county 30 to 50 percent less than conducting it as a polling place election.

For more information on Jeffco elections, please visit www.votejeffco.com.