County department budget requests are in. Now it’s time to trim, and the county board met on August 30 to start that process.
County Board Chair Jim Johnson began the meeting by clarifying what their options are: keep the 2012 budget the same as this year’s, increase the levy (which will already be increased since the state won’t be reimbursing the county for homestead property taxes anymore), or dip into the county’s fund balance.
A somewhat philosophical discussion ensued.
Commissioners Bruce Martinson and Sue Hakes recommended doing a combination of all three options. Regarding the fund balance, Hakes said, “My inclination is to protect that.”
Auditor-Treasurer Braidy Powers said that while the dollar amount of the fund balance has been increasing over the past decade, it has been decreasing as a percentage of the annual budget.
This year’s budget requests would bring the levy to $6,918,930, 17 percent over the previous levy of $5,887,152. Using the money in the county’s BWCA fund, which the county can do, would bring the levy amount down to $6,266,458, or 6.44 percent over the previous levy. Money in the BWCA fund is what the federal government gives the county since it does not receive property tax revenue for the vast amount of land in the BWCA.
To reduce a potential levy increase down to 3 percent and not dip into the general fund, Powers said, about $200,000 would need to be cut out of the proposed budget.
Commissioner Hakes suggested that they prioritize the services the county provides and try to shave off expenses wherever possible, saying that they could go back to the department heads and get their input on what could be reduced. Commissioner Bruce Martinson said he thought department heads kept their budget requests as low as possible. Commissioner Johnson agreed.
“I tend to favor the levy increase,” Commissioner Johnson said. “I tend to disfavor cuts.” Cutbacks are coming back to bite them, he said. People are complaining about the condition of the gravel roads, for example, after they cut back on the amount of calcium chloride they apply. “We have people who are hurting all over the county,” Johnson continued. “They don’t have enough money for medicine or food.” Second homeowners would take the brunt of increased property taxes, he said.
Johnson also favored keeping money in the fund balance. He said if they don’t keep putting money into the Highway Department’s capital fund, for example, the county would end up using equipment so broken down that fixing it and keeping it running would be more expensive than replacing it. Sometimes you save money down the road by spending money now, he said. Using the fund balance “can only go on so long,” he said.
“Everybody’s right here, right?” asked Commissioner Hakes. “There’s no wrong philosophy.”
She repeated her recommendation to shave unnecessary expenditures out of the budget. She said she didn’t think taking $200,000 out of a $17,000,000 budget would be too hard.
Commissioner Johnson said he thought it would be. He reminded the board that the state has the right to dip into county fund balances, in which case “saving for a rainy day” would have been in vain.
The question of new positions
An item in the proposed Information Technology Department budget is a tower communications coordinator who would help the county manage its tower contracts and implement the state’s new Allied Radio Matrix for Emergency Response (ARMER) that will enable all governmental and emergency response units to communicate amongst themselves. Not everyone agreed on whether the advantages of better tower contract oversight would cause that position to pay for itself.
Commissioner Fritz Sobanja said he thought they should ask which positions benefit county residents the most. The ARMER system would support the international economy and benefit Motorola—the company selling ARMER equipment— more than it would help Cook County, he said.
Sheriff Mark Falk said his department could really use someone to help them keep up with changing technology. “This technology is there whether we like it or not,” he said, “and we need to keep up with it in order to not fall behind.”
Commissioner Sobanja wasn’t convinced of the need for technology upgrades. “Physically, technology affects me,” said Sobanja. The board will soon be using different lights at their desks because of Sobanja’s sensitivities to certain types of lights. He said minorities negatively affected by such things are often not considered. “It’s fantastic because it’s new,” he said. “What about those who don’t use it?” He said they don’t really know if someone living way up in the woods and having chest pain would really be saved by having the Internet. “We don’t have to buy into it,” he said. “We have that option. We live in America.”
Short-term cuts, long-term consequences
Commissioner Jan Hall, on the Northeast Regional Corrections board, said they are considering looking to counties to help fund programs or cutting programs. With no money in reserves, Northeast Regional Corrections would have to cut programs if it got less money, and those programs are meant to prevent recidivism and rehabilitate people, she said.
“It’s short-term thinking with long-term consequences,” Commissioner Johnson said. “That the kind of thing I want to avoid in Cook County.” Saving a dollar now, he said, could cost $10 down the road.
Shaving expenses
Suggestions for saving money included commissioners trying to car pool more for out-of-county meetings (without violating the Open Meeting Law), raising the price of plat books sold to the public, and changing the type of insurance offered to employees.
In the end, Sobanja pointed out, even spending the time to discuss the minutiae of budget cuts with department heads over and over takes up staff time and therefore costs money.
The board will continue their budget discussion at 10 a.m. Friday, September 9.
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