Near the end of an almost sixhour meeting on Tuesday, December 22, 2009, the county board whittled a potential 2010 levy increase of 6.93% down to 4.69%. The maximum allowed by the state in 2010 would be $6,013,324, but the county reduced it to $5,887,152, a savings of $126,172.
Between 2002 and 2009, Commissioner Bob Fenwick said, levy increases have kept pace with state aid decreases. Expenditures, however, have continued to go up while revenues have not, he said. The 6.93% levy increase the state would have allowed would have been “a bit more” than the 2010 decrease in state aid, Fenwick said. “At some point, we’re going to pay the piper,” he said.
One addition proposed for the 2010 budget was $40,000 for a radio communications technician who could help implement the Allied Radio Matrix for Emergency Response (ARMER) system the county may start using to allow emergency and governmental entities to communicate with each other.
“I believe we should contract some of these positions out,” said Commissioner Jan Hall. This would allow the county to avoid paying benefits and, according to Hall, give the county more control over how its money is spent.
Sheriff Mark Falk suggested contracting with communications expert Duane Ege for some of his time instead of adding in the $40,000/ year radio technician position. Ege’s expertise will be needed if the county implements the ARMER system, he said.
“The county continues to take all these responsibilities,” Hall stated, giving as examples the proposed fiber optics communications system and the board’s decision to allow Public Health & Human Services Director Sue Futterer to work off-site part of the time. Later in the meeting, she said the county should stop bailing out the Cook County-Grand Marais Economic Development Authority, which has asked for loans and early funding payments to pay its bills. Speaking of the budget, she said, “We just continually put things in here. … If we just accept everything the way it is, then we never address these. …We just keep adding and adding every single time.”
The board may need to start saying no to capital purchase requests they usually approve, Fenwick said. The federal payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILT) will increase next year, he said, but he did not support using that money to decrease the levy. Cook County currently has the lowest tax rate in the state, he said. “There’s a lot of counties that are not levying back the unallotments,” Fenwick said, not because those counties have the money, however. “They’re doing it out of principle,” he said.
Commissioner Fritz Sobanja said other county levy increases he is aware of range from 0% to 13%.
The board discussed creating a sinking fund for vehicle and equipment replacement in the Highway Department. This would allow expenditures to be less variable from year to year and would allow the department to follow a replacement schedule. Commissioner Martinson said part of the increase in PILT funding should be used to develop a sinking fund.
If the Highway Department spends less than $500,000 a year on equipment replacement, Highway Department Maintenance Supervisor Russell Klegstad said, they will be “going backwards” again and will end up with huge replacement costs.
“If this forces us to make some really tough decisions,” Fenwick said, “then I’m okay with it.”
Commissioner Jim Johnson contended that several departments would need increased funding. Public Health & Human Services will need more funding, he said, “as people become more dependent on us.” Decreased state funding for courts will leave more responsibility in the hands of counties, and in these tough economic times, Johnson said, the Sheriff ’s Office may end up with a bigger workload.
Commissioner Bruce Martinson made a motion to lower the levy increase to 3%. To accomplish this, he suggested funding only two of the three new plow trucks requested by the Highway Department, not funding the radio technician position, reviewing the amount of funding for the Grand Marais Art Colony and the county fair, and funding only one of two snowmobiles requested by the Sheriff ’s Office (since the department has access to several other snowmobiles through Search & Rescue and the Border Patrol’s Operation Stonegarden),
Sheriff Falk reminded the board that because the Sheriff ’s Office is mandated to provide 24-hour emergency services to the county, they cannot rely on the staff or equipment of other entities.
Commissioner Martinson suggested that the county could generate other revenues to keep the levy increase down, such as by selling used Highway Department equipment. He suggested that the board consider eliminating one position from the Planning & Zoning Department or changing eligibility levels for help with medical bills through Public Health & Human Services. His motion to keep the levy increase to 3% failed by a 4-1 vote.
Bob Fenwick made a motion to reduce the levy increase to 4.7% by taking out the special levy the state would have allowed due to unallotments to the Sheriff ’s Office. That motion passed with Martinson casting the sole nay vote.
After that, the board tried to figure out how they could reduce the proposed budget to stay within the 4.69% levy increase. They unanimously voted to reduce county fair funding by $2,500, not add the radio technician position ($40,000), and, at the suggestion of Agriculture Inspector Shae Kosmalski, reduce the agriculture inspector salary by $4,000. They figured in an anticipated $50,000 from the sale of used Highway Department equipment. The county’s reserve fund may be tapped to make up the rest of the funding deficit. At the end of last year, the reserve fund balance was $7,936,752.
This fall, other northwestern Minnesota counties reported that their levies would increase by the following amounts: Pine, 0%; St. Louis, 1.33%; Aitkin, 2.2%; Koochiching, 3%; Carlton, 4.1%; and Lake, 6.7%.
Some citizens might wonder what percentage of the Cook County population will be receiving pay increases of 4.69%, the amount of the 2010 county tax increase, which does not include the additional amounts people will pay with the 1% county sales and use tax to be implemented in April. The Cook County News-
Herald
does not know the answer to that question.
Leave a Reply