The Barry County Commission has approved the 2025 budget, which allows for up to $6.67 million in spending across all county offices and includes a pay raise for all county employees.
Joyce Ennis, Barry County clerk, said the total proposed budget is $6,670,661, which includes estimated 2025 sales tax revenue of $6,012,401, plus $6,749,308.49 carried over from 2024. This gives the county a total appropriation of $12,761,709.49.
The approved budget for 2025 is about $45,000 less than 2024 actual spending, and Ennis budgeted a small increase in sales tax revenue of about $100,000.
“We are conservative with sales tax revenue projections because some new laws exempt taxes, and with a new president, we are not sure what the trends will be,” she said. “We also are not expecting as much interest [on funds held in savings and CDs] as last year. We encourage people to shop local.”
“We’ve always budgeted conservatively because we live and die by the sales tax,” said Gary Schad, northern commissioner. “We are one of very few counties in Missouri with no property tax levy.”
For 2025, the Commission approved raises for all employees, boosting all employees to at least $15 per hour to meet the upcoming 2026 minimum wage requirement, as well as a 4% cost of living raise for all other employees already above the $15 per hour pay rate.
“With the new minimum wage law, we feel moving employees to the $15 (2026 minimum wage) will help keep the county competitive and retain employees,” Ennis said.
Employees may also receive a 2% increase mid-year, for which the county has budgeted and plans to appropriate as long as sales tax revenues follow projections.
“We’d like to give more in raises, but we feel we have to be conservative there, too,” Ennis said.
Ennis said the building and grounds budget also increased due to additional property to mow and a hike in Judicial Center cleaning costs. Ennis also noted a $6,000 grant in the election budget for new poll pads.
Two areas of the budget saw decreases. In the circuit clerk’s office, the law library fund will take over some expenses previously funded by the county; and in the prosecutor’s office, the law enforcement sales tax provided funding for a crime victims advocate, previously funded by the county. The currently vacant position is budgeted for a salary up to $32,000.
Officials also made a note that Title III funds for forests will provide search and rescue equipment for the Barry County Sheriff’s Office, supplying money for a drone, two four-wheelers and a trailer.
“We’ve had several episodes where people have been stranded in Mark Twain National Forest,” Schad said.
“This will keep us from borrowing equipment from other counties, which we have done in the past,” Ennis added.
Officials said the county does not have many capital projects scheduled for this year, and the budget for that line stayed the same as years past at $2,750,000. In 2024, the county only spent $1,270,859.90 of that allotment.
“ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) and tribal funds replaced the HVAC in the courthouse, and we want to repaint the interior of the building this year,” Ennis said.
“Getting out of the old jail really lessened our capital projects expenses,” Schad added.
A point of interest in 2024 was the impending move to the new Sheriff’s Office and jail, occurring in the same year as the first full appropriation of the law enforcement sales tax passes in 2022.
The Sheriff’s Office was budgeted for $4,224,454 in 2024, but spent just $3,221,889.35, a difference of just more than $1 million.
Ennis said the underspending was due to the budget accounting for the Sheriff’s Office being fully staffed, which was not the case and saved money in salaries and fuel, among other expenses. The jail’s closure from June 2024 to the year’s end also resulted in savings.
This year, the Sheriff’s Office is approved for $4,669,235, an increase of nearly $445,000. Each line item saw an increase except for the jail, which was decreased from $268,000 to $248,000. Revenue projections of $3,479,260, plus a carry- over of $1,813,070.08, allowed for a total appropriation of $5,292,330.08.
The county intends to pay off the jail in eight years, and when asked if there was anything officials wish they could do but didn’t have the funds, Schad pointed to the new debt.
“I wish we could just pay off the jail right now,” he said. “But, for the first time in a long time, [the county is] in a very good position [financially].”
The county reserve fund is at about $7 million, and the Sheriff’s Office is building a reserve fund, currently at about $300,000.
If projections hold and the county operates exactly to the budget, there will be an estimated balance of $6,091,048.49 in the general revenue fund and $623,095.08 in the law enforcement fund.
Along with Ennis and Schad, Southern Commissioner Gene Robbins and Presiding Commissioner Steve Blankenship were in attendance, as well as Assessor Sherry Smith and Treasurer Greta Tripp.
“As an officeholder, I’d like to add the commission is very good to work with,” Smith said. “They usually give me everything I request, and they are knowledgeable and enjoyable to work with.”
