The Garden City Telegram
Email this story | Add Your Comment
| Read (0) Comments
County Commission holds line on budget cuts for 2009
Published 8/12/2008 in News : Politics
By STEPHANIE FARLEY
sfarley@gctelegram.com
If Finney County Commissioner Roman Halbur had a crystal ball, it might've been easier to figure the 2009 budget based on next year and even 2010's economy.
But, at this point, Halbur said "the economy's up in the air."
And if he and fellow Commissioner Don Doll had to guess about what's ahead, they'd say 2010 is going to be a tougher year than 2009 with budget cuts and holding the county's mill levy steady.
On Monday, Halbur made a motion for the commission to keep holding the line by keeping the 2009 budget at about a half-mill increase -- Halbur, Doll and Commissioner Larry Jones approved the motion 3-2, with commissioners Cliff Mayo and Bob Baker opposing. The approval allows the 2009 budget to remain as proposed, increasing this year's mill levy of 36.017 mills to 36.583 for 2009.
The question commissioners considered Monday as they sat, facing about 40 or so people in the audience for the budget hearing, was whether to approve the budget as proposed, increase some agency budgets that received cuts to their 2008 funding level, or restoring cut funding to all of the agencies to put them all back at the 2008 funding level.
Commissioners cut about $1.13 million -- or about 2.3 mills -- from the initial budget proposal for 2009. Before cuts, the budget had an estimated $34,924,940 in expenditures -- $19,004,190 of that having an impact on taxes. Now, the tax-funded amount is at about $17.87 million. While many of the county departments' proposed budgets stayed as requested, commissioners did a "blanket" cut of about 4 percent of the amount estimated to be spent this year from outside agencies that receive funding from the county.
Mayo made a motion at the county's budget workshop in July to fund the agencies at the current level for 2008, which would have added about $100,000, back onto taxing funds. That motion failed.
On Monday, Mayo said he still favored giving that money back to agencies but that he would not make another motion for the action, adding that motion needed to come from the majority that denied the first proposal.
The budget hearing
The majority of the crowd Monday was associated with Finney County Extension and 4-H. Keith Strasser, chairman for Extension's 2008 Executive Board, had posted fliers requesting members of the public and those associated with and served by Extension attend the hearing to show their support.
Extension's 2009 request of $260,600 was cut to $220,000, with 2008's estimate of expenditures being $230,000. Extension staff, families and 4-H'ers filled the commission room Monday to ask commissioners to not approve the proposed cut. Before Monday's 11:30 a.m. public hearing for the 2009 budget, the commission held hearings for Sewer District Nos. 1, 2 and 3 -- no one voiced any public comment, and all budgets were approved. But by about 11:25 a.m., more than 20 people sat in the room waiting for the general budget hearing.
Those attending included Extension agent Whitey Whitehill, as well as Debra Bolton, with the Kansas State University Southwest Area Office, and Anna May Velev, Lora Norquest, Larry Goss, Steve Michel, Pamela Ramsey, Mark Jensen and others associated with 4-H and Extension programs.
"That will probably be an all-time record," County Administrator Pete Olson said of the hearing's attendance.
As the commission considered its options, Ramsey told them, "No one's going to think less of you if you do change your mind."
Whitehill and Strasser have said the current cuts mean reduced equipment replacement, elimination of some rural travel and home consultation and less out-of-town training. If funding continues to be cut from Extension, Strasser and Whitehill said, there's not going to be a program that isn't affected.
Goss said his children went through 4-H, and he'd hate to see the program affected by the cuts. He said that by spending money on Extension and 4-H, the county was helping some youth stay out of trouble.
Whitehill asked if Extension could come back to the county if commissioners moved forward with the cuts and the office copier or a vehicle goes down. Mayo said Whitehill was more than welcome to ask for help with funding if that occurs, but there's no guarantee the commission will be able to help.
Other agencies
Mayo said the commission's question was two-fold: whether to deny Halbur's motion and leave the agencies at 2008 funding, or to consider the budgets of individual agencies, "which I hate to do."
He said he thought the commission made a mistake in doing "a blanket cut" on agencies, which differs from what they've done in the past in looking at each agency's budget.
Halbur said the option was to keep funding level for all of the agencies and that he didn't feel they could increase just one budget.
"And I figured none was the way to go," he said.
The commission went against what Norma Nichols, executive director for Finney County Committee on Aging, wanted to see. Nichols has upcoming costs of utilities and maintenance for a new transit center and rising fuel costs for Meals on Wheels, as well as employee retention, to cover in her budget. The center's 2009 request of $500,000 was cut to $432,000. The 2008 estimate is $450,000.
Nichols said she needs to sit down "and put a pencil to" the budget, looking at how to cover the cut. She said funding level with 2008 "would've been tight, too, but this is extremely tight."
"But we're not going to shut the doors," Nichols said, adding the commissioners were elected to make decisions. "So we'll just figure out how to make it work."
Found 0 comment(s)!
Twitter Updates
