In Your Corner

On Friday, July 21, the County Administrator presented a "state

of the county" overview to launch a week-long review of the proposed

budget for fiscal year 2000-2001 by the county commission. The tentative

budget request is for $302,995,735, or an almost $10 million dollar

increase over the 1999-2000 total of $292,996,000 . This is another 3.3%

(over $80 per county resident) increase. Also proposed is an overall

increase of 23.5 new full-time county employees, an increase of almost

3%. This budget growth again exceeds the rate of population growth and

highlights a continuing concern about the never ending growth of

government.

Even though the county's taxable property values have increased

approximately 7%, yielding an additional $6,220,000 in revenue from ad

valorem taxes in fiscal year 2000-2001, a total millage increase of

1.94% was proposed to cover the budget shortfall. This millage increase

was reduced to 1.7% because of even higher taxable property values.

Summaries of the departments are as follows:

DEPARTMENT BUDGET 99-00 PROPOSED 00-01 % Change

Administration $ 749,132 802,104 7

Admin. Services 1,457,222 1,543,722 5.9

Airport 395,987 672,861 69

Capital Imp. 70,769,996 76,300,523 7.8

Commission 500,004 513,353 2.7

Commission MSTU 2,473,288 2,636,544 6.6

Community Ser. 5,677,639 6,013,596 5.9

County Attorney 883,366 935,534 5.9

Emergency Ser. 15,034,867 16,783,135 11.6

Environ. Ser. 22,349,692 21,015,736 -6

Gen. Ser. 4,616,388 4,870,359 5.5

Growth Man. 7,096,769 6,132,690 -13.5

Information Tec.4,668,016 4,549,671 -2.5

Library 2,936,060 3,306,523 12.6

Non-depart. 97,758,212 97,428,459 0

Parks & Recre. 3,501,030 3,805,486 8.7

Public Ser. 10,008,371 10,072,235 0.6

Clerk of Court 2,851,220 2,861,920 0

Prop. Appraiser 2,147,857 2,309,861 7.5

Sheriff 28,547,253 30,923,135 8.3

St. Judicial 1,187,199 1,281,261 7.9

Super.of Elect. 822,406 865,506 5.2

Tax Collector 2,814,715 2,912,420 3.5

As you can plainly see, the biggest item on the budget is

"Non-departmental". This includes seven categories: Non-departmental,

Risk Management, Economic Development, Litigation, Debt Service,

Budgeted Transfers and Reserves. All of these categories have the same

mission statement, which is "To encompass those areas within the county

government operation which are not identified within a specific

department." We believe responsibility for this large diverse account

should be better assigned.

The library needs staffing for the new Robert Morgade Library, and

The Parks & Recreation Department is asking for nine additional

personnel this year because of the opening of new facilities, namely

Halpatioke Regional Park, and the Indian Riverside Park. The Parks

Director assured us that grounds keeping and restroom cleaning were

already privatized functions, prompting us to ask for further details on

their request for new hires.

Public Services is requesting six additional people for the stated

purpose of repairing existing sidewalks. The county cannot privatize

this task because of bonding and other requirements imposed on

independent contractors. This request was supported by a department

study that states they could do this ongoing job more efficiently than

any private contractor. Unfortunately, when new people are added, they

become "the base" from which the bureaucracy continues to grow.

Aside from the cost of new facilities mentioned above, two

departments are requesting salary increases with a major impact on

spending. The sheriff is requesting $2.4 million to cover salary

increases described as "overdue". Emergency Services are asking for 3

additional personnel plus salary increases that result in an 11%

increase in their budget from last year. These increases are compounded

over the significant wage and employee increases of last year .

All in all, the presentation of the proposed budget by the

Administrator and the Director of Administrative Services was, by any

standards, very complete and professional. Although the budget was

well-prepared and presented, it is still difficult to understand, as

several factors hinder our ability to draw meaningful comparisons from

year to year, and between our county and others. Further analysis and

recommendations of the budget will follow next week.