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5/14/2009
So, what is Outagamie County doing about their budget?
Outagamie County instituted a voluntary leave-without-pay program this week; about ten county employees have signed up so far – a couple of days here and there. And that’s just the beginning of cost controls.
Much has been in the news this last week – yesterday it was Brookfield Mayor jeff Speaker asking employees to volunteer for furloughs and New Berlin Mayor Jack Chiovatero imposing a spending and hiring freeze. Last Friday alone, FoxPolitics News included news of Oneida, Columbia and Dane Counties adjusting current budgets and beginning the tough work on 2010 budgets.
Racine County says they will meet the expected 3% levy increase cap (an increase in the cap, included in Governor Doyle’s proposed budget) by relying on a wage freeze for employees. The Gannett papers reported yesterday that Portage County will drop in-house psychological services, impacting more than 200 clients and eliminating the jobs of three clinicians.
So, what is Outagamie County doing?
I asked Deputy Executive Administrator Sherri McNamara what Outagamie County is doing in preparation for looming budget challenges. As mentioned above, voluntary furloughs are starting now; if more savings are needed, the county may move to mandatory furloughs.
For the 2009 budget year, McNamara shared that “administratively, we have been talking to department heads, urging them to save what they can in their budgets this year.” If positions open up, the budgeting folks are suggesting as a matter of policy, that positions stay open longer than has been typical. A dollar here and a dollar there will add up.
The county will continue to look “at every crook and cranny.” Certainly, there’s not much left in those crooks; McNamara mentioned more substantive changes expected for 2010 (listed below), but the likelihood is the summer will bring county officials looking for still more and bigger crannies.
Just as has been reported for several counties and municipalities recently, it’s unsettling to Outagamie County that the governor is reducing shared revenues, balancing his state budget on the backs of school and municipal property taxpayers, who will have to make up the difference. Though McNamara’s boss, County Exec. Toby Paltzer, is waiting for state budget passage to know what revenues to expect before beginning formal budget processes, he and his staff surely have been thinking seriously about it.
- The tax levy goal for 2010 will be to come in well under that expected 3% allowable increase.
- Mandatory furloughs will be implemented if needed.
- Surely, the state will not have the dollars to bring Outagamie into the Family Care program in 2010. Waiting times will become longer and the county will be forced to look at additional options to address needs.
- Union contracts are all settled (through 2010, I believe). However, it’s possible no increase will be offered for non-represented employees in 2010.
- Stimulus dollars of $492,300 will offset some current line item spending; dollars will be used for “projects that are in the budget, should be in the budget, or should be in the capital projects budget.”
- Some stimulus dollars will be used to achieve immediate – and long term – energy savings.
- Attempts to increase alternatives to incarceration (ATIP) – e.g., electronic monitoring – will be continued.
It’s probably not too early for the County Board – and citizens – to get involved via Finance Committee discussions of priorities. At the risk of making an understatement, it’s going to be a tough budget.
COMMENTS
As our privete sector incomes are cut. Many in my industry by 60% and more, it seems like the county is taking the wait and just see how things go approach rather then making the hard choices and looking at the reality that is staring them in the face. The state has taken that same approach and now has spent every dollar reserved for anything (like the highway funds being pillaged and now there is no money to keep up our roads "duh") and spent it on whatever. Voluntary unpaid time off is a great start but it needs to be backed up with a plan. Real easy to do. We need "x" numbers of unpaid hours off. You have one week to sign up voluntarily and than we assign the rest. There wasn't that easy. Just putting out voluntary unpaid time off feels good but where's the beef?
Mike (Thu May 14 08:27:26 2009)
Jo:
There are other things in the budget that should be looked at that have a greater impact than a few hours of voluntary time off by county employees. The biggest one would be a serious look at the Health Center (Brewster Village) and the potential to privatize that facility like other counties around us have done. When I left the board several years ago, we were subsidizing the Health Center with over $4.0 million of county taxes. I wounder what it is now since that was 4 years ago and inflation would have probably increased that.
For some reason the current administration and board has elected to make this a "sacred cow" not to be touched or even talked about. I don't think we can have any sacred cows in this budget cycle.
Also, the board should immediately address priorities for the upcoming budget before the budget is developed and sent to the board by the county executive.
I think the it is the board's responsibility to give the direction to the County Executive with input from their constituents. In the past the board has been reluctant to do this and left the decisions on the budget to the committee structure. Several members of the board were chastised for "going around the system" to get the attention of the County Executive on the upcoming budget with suggestions on how and where to cut.
The entire board needs to get involved with this now and not wait until the fall when a lot of the budget is set in stone and is difficult to change. Now is the time for input and dialogue.
Otherwise all you will get is minor band aids like voluntary time off. The analogy here is like "rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic". Let's see some real action and discussion on the budget and what should be cut to stay under the cap. If you don't then you should be contacting your supervisor and the County Executive.
Mike Thomas (Thu May 14 11:22:37 2009)
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