A first draft of the 2013 Jefferson County budget shows the size of county government shrinking.

Jeffco Budget Director Christina Caputo presented a first draft Oct. 9 of county staff’s proposed $472.6 million budget, representing a $3.7 million decrease from 2012, to the Board of County Commissioners. She gave a similar budget presentation to the public on Tuesday, Oct. 16.

Caputo said the decrease is due in large part to a 1.3 percent drop in property tax revenue — the county’s largest source of revenue.

“We’ve been prepared for that, making cuts early,” Caputo said, adding that future property value reassessments would hopefully providing increased revenue.

Other revenue sources, especially investment and rental income, are “very conservatively forecasted” Caputo said.

The county commissioners are scheduled to discuss the budget in greater detail in the coming weeks, with a final budget adoption on Dec. 4. The draft budget document is available on the county web site at jeffco.us/budget.

While the budget is slightly smaller, it does call for four new full-time positions to be added to county government. The new positions are for a facilities electrician, painter for the Sheriff’s Department facilities and two new Human Services Department employees to handle community assistance programs.

Combined with the 4.6 full-time equivalent positions that were created over the course of 2012 and Caputo said the net change from the approved 2012 budget would be 8.6 positions. That would place the total number of county positions at 2,895.6.

“No funding allowances have been made for salary increases,” Caputo told the commissioners, meaning no cost of living, or merit raises for county employees.

Per the county commissioners’ guidelines, the budget includes funding for Jeffco to cover half of expected health benefit increases for employees.

The county plans to increase capital improvement spending in 2013, with $38.3 million in projects. Some of the bigger projects include work on Quincy Avenue from Kipling Street to Wadsworth Boulevard and Chatfield Avenue from Garrison Street to Ken Caryl Avenue, as well as a $4 million mandatory upgrading of Jeffco’s voting system.

The county commissioners and Caputo noted that the draft budget “could look completely different,” following input from the public, county departments and commissioner discussion, by the final approval on Dec. 4.