Butler County ended last year in the black, according to independently audited numbers.

County Controller Ben Holland said the fund balance ended up being $1.4 million, as verified by the Butler firm Maher Duessel’s annual audit of county finances.

He credited a $2.5 million transfer from state natural gas drilling impact fee revenue for keeping the county out of the red.

Holland said there would have been a $1.1 million deficit without the transfer.

“We definitely had a cash flow crisis,” he said.

The 2015 county budget, which did not include a property tax hike, was $184.2 million.

Holland said along with the transfer, the county’s effort to reduce spending late in the year benefited the bottom line.

“That moratorium on spending at the end of the year helped,” he said.

Holland stressed the situation would not have been as dire if that step had been taken earlier in 2015.

“Caution was thrown to the wind until the holiday season,” he said.

All three new county commissioners, who took office in January, agreed that more could have been done to ease fiscal woes sooner.

Commissioner Kim Geyer, who was an administrative assistant during the last term, recalled Holland pointing out there were budgetary concerns in May 2015.

“There should have been a moratorium in place then,” Geyer said.

She said the previous board did not follow up on Holland’s concerns.

“The commissioners didn’t believe the controller,” Geyer said.

The previous minority commissioner, Jim Eckstein, did echo Holland’s sentiment, but did not gain any traction with the other two commissioners. Bill McCarrier and Dale Pinkerton.

Commissioner Leslie Osche, current board chairman, said the county budget needs to be closely monitored throughout the year.

“It gets back to a budget process that can be improved tremendously,” Osche said.

She said there is no reason the county should ever be pressured to come up with funding at the eleventh hour.

There shouldn’t be a moratorium, Osche said. “You shouldn’t be in this position.”

Commissioner Kevin Boozel said the previous county officials were complacent about spending.

“They were confident they were able to manage cash flow,” Boozel said.

The commissioners also concur with Holland that actual numbers with no padding should be included in a budget.

“You mislead yourself when you don’t use real numbers,” Osche said.

Holland emphasized that operating costs, which were $23 million in 2015, were not the problem. He cited personnel costs, which were $32.5 million, as the issue.

Holland maintains county jobs should have been cut.

“Last year, we should have been handing out pink slips,” he said, referring to cutting jobs. “But we were handing out pay increases.”

The commissioners agreed rising salary costs are a major concern, but stressed there has to be a thorough process to determine how positions can be eliminated.