Butler County could be short $3.4 million in its fund balance by the end of the year, according to county Controller Ben Holland.

In a report filed this week to the state Department of Community and Economic Development, Holland said that the county’s 2015 budget was balanced using an estimated amount of about $7.8 million from the fund balance. However, Holland said that the county really only has $4.4 million in that fund balance.

“This is cause for great caution,” Holland said.

He said that the county will need to be careful in its spending over the next six months.

Holland noted that the county has $1.2 million in operating reserves that can be used, but he cautioned against using that to regularly balance the budget.

In 2014, the county budgeted for $60.1 million in expenses, but only had projected $54.8 million in revenue. To balance that, the county planned to use $5.3 million in the fund balance. By the end of the year, the county had only spent $57.9 million but still needed to use about $1.5 million in the fund balance.

Holland said he would like to see the county try to not rely on balancing the budget using the fund balance so often, noting that the county has spent more than it has gained in revenue for several recent years.

Commissioner Bill McCarrier, board chairman, said he feels Holland is “crying wolf.”

“I’m not sure what he’s talking about,” McCarrier said.

He said that the county’s net position has increased more than $10 million during the past few years, which he said is a strong indicator of the county’s financial health.

McCarrier also said that the county does not spend all of the fund balance, and said that there are more parts to the fund balance than Holland is talking about.

Commissioner Dale Pinkerton said he expected the controller to be more forthcoming sooner.

“As I look at the figures that we have ... I don’t see we have the problem he says we do,” Pinkerton said this morning.

He said board members were blindsided by Holland’s press release on the matter. Holland told commissioners of his concerns at a meeting earlier last week, Pinkerton said, but he believes the controller failed to tell the board of them for about six months.

“It’s not fair for a controller to know something and not express it with the commissioners, and to do it in the manner he did it,” Pinkerton said.

Commissioner Jim Eckstein said he believes that the deficit actually was closer to $1.5 million. However, he said that the county budgeted $6 million to pay for retirements when it only actually had to pay $5 million, leaving an extra $1 million.

Additionally, he claims that roughly $500,000 in Act 13 state gas impact fee money was added to the budget after it was balanced. Effectively, he said it appears that there is no deficit counting these items.

He said the budget was not balanced using the $7.8 million.

“We didn’t balance it with the fund balance,” Eckstein said.

Holland said the roughly $1.5 million Eckstein is referring to was the deficit at the end of the 2014 budget year. He said the projected deficit for the end of the year still would be $3.4 million. He did note that there was about $1 million in retirement savings in 2014, and said he predicts there will be another savings this year, too.

Eckstein said that Holland made it seem like the deficit was the commissioners’ fault. But, he said Holland, as a member of the salary board, has recently voted for pay increase of county employees.

“Don’t blame it on me,” Eckstein said.

Eagle staff writer Phil Rau contributed to this report.