 Finance chairman Chuck Ruben explained that the estimated excess
rollover into this fiscal year would be $474,778. The budget the
committee presented was set to use $339,282 of that reserve, leaving
an ending fund balance of $135,496. He expected the board to pass
amendments taking another $54,000 out. "So, we're essentially ending
up next year with a zero," he said.While there is no legislated
amount to have in reserve, government accountants recommend keeping
one-quarter to one-third of your budget in reserves, which would be
$1.5 million to $2 million for Logan County, Ruben said.
That's a big number, John Stewart said. He recalled that there
was nearly $2 million in reserves when he began eight years ago, and
he took responsibility for being one of 12 making decisions on how
that money has been spent.
He added, "I know it's not going to be a good thing, what we're
doing, to a lot of people." We even took away funds for police cars
that have 200,000 miles on them, he said. "I don't see anything in
the future, the next couple of years, especially if you are at
zero."
All 12 Logan County Board members were present: Rick Aylesworth,
Kevin Bateman, Terry Carlton, Bob Farmer, Gloria Luster, David
Hepler, Bill Martin, Pat O'Neill, Chuck Ruben, Jan Schumacher, John
Stewart and Terry Werth.
There was considerable discussion on several of the five proposed
budget amendments.
Ruben said the finance committee has not discussed raises for
employees (with the full board). If there was anyone interested, he
had compiled some figures to discuss those costs, including what's
in this budget.
Schumacher said: "We tried to keep the rates for the nonunion
comparable to the union, but they had built-in raises. It troubles
me that we can't do that at this time. But, I feel like our hands
are really tied at this time having to make such deep cuts into the
departments. It's unfortunate that we can't do raises for nonunion
employees."
*
O'Neill opened consideration of proposed amendments by motioning
to remove $75,000 from the building and grounds pool. The pool is
for emergency funds for building and grounds repairs. He suggested
transferring those funds for use to help department budgets, which
might alleviate potential layoffs. He believed the county could get
grants for the courthouse, as it is a historical building.
Stewart said the pool money has been built up for eight years and
needs to be kept for emergency repair or replacement uses, such as
if the elevator would go out, there would be a $100,000 cost that
the county would need to come up with right away.
Stewart said the courthouse does not have special designation as
a historic building. To qualify for that, it would "have to go back
to being kept in the original state that it was in over a hundred
years ago -- (having) no dropped ceilings or window air
conditioners," he said.
Schmacher agreed that the courthouse is a historic building of
value, but it does not have that special designation. Grants in that
category often have limitations. However, it is valued as a
significant building that is part of the downtown historic business
district, and funds would continue to be sought for the courthouse
needs.
She added that many of the grants require matching funds and the
pool needs to be kept for that purpose also.
Carlton, the board chairman, told O'Neill that the $75,000 would
need to be designated to go to a specific fund.
O'Neill recounted hearing earlier this year from county highway
engineer Bret Aukamp that it is going to cost much more to repair
roads and bridges if we don't care for some of them now. After some
sorting out, O'Neill proposed putting the $75,000 in the highway
department's bridge fund.
Ruben explained that could not be done. Even splitting the
$75,000 between bridge and matching tax funds would exceed the
legislated levy of 10 cents that is allowed on assessed values.
It was decided that if approved, the money would go to the
highway department, with the added stipulation that it be used for
road and bridge repair.
Stewart asked if road and bridge received their full levies this
year.
Ruben explained that both levies were first cut 13 percent with
all the other budgets. But then, with consultation from highway
engineer Bret Aukamp, those funds were brought back up in order to
fully use matching tax programs that require 90 percent.
The county bridge fund is at $168,210. Matching tax is at
$186,750.
Last year, county bridge was at $100,000 and matching tax was
$199,000, with $207,000 permissible.
*
Moving on, Aylesworth motioned to put $4,000 back into the
coroner's budget.
Schumacher said she supported this because of the nature of the
work that the coroner's office does. It can be dangerous when they
are out on the road for accidents. And, "it's one of the more
unpleasant jobs, notifying families and so on," she said. "Mr.
Thomas has done a very good job of keeping his deputies trained and
is operating his office professionally. I don't want to hinder
that."
*
[to top of second column]
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Hepler motioned to remove funds that would go for economic
development.
In discussion, Ruben recommended separation of the funds that are
lumped: $25,000 for economic development, which would go to the
Lincoln & Logan County Development Partnership, and, $5,000 for the
Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy.
Ruben said he wanted to retain the funding to both the budgets.
"I feel it is a necessary part of the county to promote economic
development," he said.
Schumacher added that removing the money would effectively
withdraw the county from participation in the development
partnership, which would affect getting more jobs in an already weak
economy.
Ruben took another moment to add clarification to the county's
dwindling reserves.
The reserves are funds that roll over from one year to the next
and help keep the county able to meet its bill payment and payroll
in a timely fashion all year long.
He's heard from many people saying, "Well, you said the budget
was OK."
"Well, the budget was OK," he said. "It's still OK. It's running
at the budgeted levels."
However, he looked at the trend.
"The current year's budget began with $600,000 excess, in
addition to revenues that came in. The proposed budget includes
$339,000. Any amendments to put money back into budgets would take
this figure lower and leaves less for next year," he said.
A 1 percent cut is about $60,000.
"So, if you would run the same budget next year with the same
revenues and the same expenses, and essentially zero fund balance,
we'd have to make an additional $408,000 cut to the next budget.
Which, in comparison, would roughly be equivalent to 20 percent cuts
on the baseline for this year," he said.
He wanted everyone to be aware of that now, "because even if we
say all year long, ‘The budget's working perfectly,' that's where
we're going to end up."
*
2011 budget amendment results:
-
Remove $5,000 from
the airport farm fund to go to the chamber of commerce in
support of the Lincoln Art & Balloon Festival.
Motion failed in a 6-6 tie.
Voting yes: Stewart, Aylesworth, Bateman, Hepler, Luster,
O'Neill
Voting no: Werth, Carlton, Farmer, Martin, Ruben, Schumacher
-
Remove $75,000
from the building and grounds courthouse pool.
Motion failed 8-2.
Yes: O'Neill, Hepler
No: Ruben, Schumacher, Stewart, Werth, Aylesworth, Bateman,
Carlton, Farmer, Luster, Martin
-
Remove $25,000
from economic development funding, which goes to the Lincoln &
Logan County Development Partnership.
Motion failed 9-3 with O'Neill, Stewart and Hepler voting yes.
-
Motion to add
$4,000 back into the coroner's budget passed unanimously.
-
Motion to add $50,000 back into the
sheriff's budget passed unanimously.
The board approved 15 days' public display of the proposed 2011
fiscal year budget 9-3, with Stewart, Hepler and O'Neill opposed.
The budget would get final approval at next month's adjourned
session on Nov. 16.
*
Following budget discussions, the board voted on two more
financial matters.
The board gave unanimous approval to support the Emergency
Telecommunications System Board in the purchase of communications
equipment at $9,000 for next year, with a 5 percent per year
adjustment in years to follow.
The board also unanimously approved hiring Will D'Andrea as the
county's geographic information system and zoning coordinator. He
would be an employee of both the regional planning commission and
the county and would be paid a salary of $55,000 plus benefits.
D'Andrea has been part time with the county as zoning officer. He
would continue in that role, adding GIS management, as well as
picking up regional planning commission duties, which include the
enterprise zone administration.
The board amended this year's budget, transferring $7,000 from
the GIS fund to the executive economic development fund to start
paying D'Andrea's salary effective Oct. 20.
[By
JAN YOUNGQUIST]
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