Commissioners okay budget with 2.61 percent in cuts

All county department heads Monday departed the county commissioners’ final budget meeting with a 2.61 percent cut to their budgets for next year.

Commissioners bridged half of the $660,000 deficit Monday for the 2011 budget by ordering a cut of $330,000 to be shouldered by the county departments.

No department is anticipating layoffs at this time.

“I don’t want to say I’m happy, but I’m satisfied with the way things turned out,” said Prosecutor Denis Tracy, whose department faces a cut of $18,000.

The 2011 general fund budget had a $660,000 deficit at the start of last week. The commissioners told department heads they planned to cover that deficit with a half and half approach, a $330,000 tap on county cash reserves and a $330,000 cut in spending plans.

Last Thursday, the commissioners sent an e-mail advising department heads that the 2.61 percent cut in spending would be inserted as a negative item, essentially a cut, at the bottom of each department’s budget.

Bottom line for the county’s general fund spending for the 22 departments, with the negative listings, dropped from $12,632,864 to $12,302,864.

Largest cut will be $84,000 listed for the sheriff’s department which had a $3,216,919 budget proposal. Second largest cut will be the commissioners with $28,765 off a proposed $1,101,172 spending plan.

Third largest cut will be $27,535 off a district court budget proposal of $1,054,088.

Wrestling a final copy of the budget to completion this month was sidetracked several times, in part because of the financial upheaval following a shutdown of the county finance department last June.

Also at Monday’s meeting, commissioners unanimously approved an increase in property tax revenue that is projected to bring in $70,000 more revenue. Commissioners approved a one percent tax revenue increase, the maximum allowed without voters approval, plus using some of the “banked capacity” from prior years when they opted not to take the tax hike.

“I think we really need it. We’re in dire straits to cover costs,” Assessor Joe Reynolds told commissioners as he suggested the tax increase. He pointed out revenue derived from passing the measure was worth the salary of at least one person.

County Sheriff Brett Myers said his department faces a cut of $84,000, a figure that will probably come off several line items, but not off staff cutbacks.

He listed the fuel budget and overtime pay as some possible places where the department will cut back.

Myers said they may also take a look at the food and medication budget for the jail. He added if any employees depart, they will most likely not be replaced in 2011.

“We’re going to do what we can with the money we have,” he said.

Tracy also said his office will see no layoffs but also won’t be filling the front office staff position which has been vacant all of this year. The ongoing loss of that staff position has slowed down the processing of cases and cut back the office hours, he noted.

“That has cost us some efficiency in the office and we’re open fewer hours in the day,” Tracy said.

At last week’s commissioner session, Tracy protested the $330,000 cut, saying the county’s $2.3 million in ready cash reserves exceeded normal state standards for cash reserves.

While both the sheriff and prosecutor offices are state-mandated services, other departments, like the parks department, are not. Commissioners mused at the last budget meeting on making harsher cuts to non-mandated services.

Parks department director Tim Myers said he felt the parks department was still greatly wanted at the local level. He felt commissioners respected that in their budget decisions. Parks faces an $8,000 to $9,000 cut as its share of the $330,000.

“The state mandate is one thing, but it’s also a local mandate. The local citizens feel strongly about it. They show that by using the parks,” Myers said.

Commissioner Greg Partch added at the end of the session the county may possibly work on budget amendments in July.

The 2011 budget was late this year in part because of upheaval earlier in the year in the county’s finance department.

The primary problem was in accounting for transfers between county departments. Commissioner Michael Largent in mid-December found more than $440,000 of those transfers were not booked.

Auditor Eunice Coker, who took over the budget preparation task after the finance department ceased, said late last week the transfer errors that Largent found at the last minute originated with the shut down of the finance department.

Coker said she did the work of delivering commissioners a budget, but said several items in their budget were not accounted for, which delayed 2011 budget negotiations.