As of last week, Park County’s budget for the upcoming year appeared more than $2.8 million short.

However, as county commissioners prepare to dive into the budget for July 1 to June 30, 2017, they believe they may already know how they’ll make things balance.

The commission last week ordered county departments to slash another 5 percent of non-personnel expenses. That should save somewhere around $300,000.

It’s on top of cuts that departments had made in their preliminary budgets; road and bridge staff, for example, had already been planning to reduce their spending on supplies, equipment and projects by upwards of 20 percent in the coming year.

“We don’t have the funds available, so we’ve got to make some cuts,” said Commission Chairman Tim French.

The county does have the money in reserves, around $16.5 million, but commissioners are wary of tapping into them too deeply — especially as lean years may still lie ahead.

French said the county has socked away the money “for this very day” but added that, “next year, we could be in the same boat and ... it could be worse.”

Commissioner Bucky Hall said he’d personally support taking perhaps $1 million from savings to balance this year’s budget, but would get uneasy if the amount approached $2 million.

Beyond using reserves, Commissioner Loren Grosskopf suggested the county may be able to make up the rest of the projected shortfall simply by budgeting a little less conservatively and shuffling some money around.

As one example, the county’s recent budgets have assumed the federal government would reduce the money it gives Park County in Payment in Lieu of Taxes and Secure Rural Schools funding. However, Congress has continued to come through with the funds, giving the budget an “unexpected” boost, year after year. That has commissioners now wondering if they should just count on getting the same check from Uncle Sam next year, rather than budgeting for it to drop by $800,000.

“I’d hate to make draconian cuts and do something we shouldn’t be doing” only to have the $800,000 actually come through, Grosskopf said, to agreement from Hall.

Laying off county employees appears to be off the table for this budget year.

“I will do anything I can to keep from cutting personnel at the present time,” Commissioner Joe Tilden pledged.

Around $14.8 million of the county’s roughly $22 million general budget goes to salaries and benefits, Grosskopf said.

Hall predicted that unless oil and gas production and its associated revenue picks back up, the county may have to start doing away with positions as they become vacant. Commissioners instituted a county-wide hiring freeze earlier this year — requiring all departments to get their permission before re-filling any positions — but getting that permission has been little more than a formality so far.

The commission will conduct its line-by-line review of the county budget on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Park County Courthouse in Cody.

A final draft of the budget will be officially presented at a July 11 public hearing.