I've been a county commissioner for just over 8 months. This is not my first trip to the budget rodeo, though.... been there and done that for a decade on the school board. And we went through the recession and made tough choices when I served on that board-- we came out on the other side of the recession in 2011 and 2012 with bruises and cuts but otherwise we made it through. In 2008-2009 we cut more than $40 million from the School District's budget-----2009-2010 was tough and 2010-2011 we got some relief from the Federal Government in the form of temporary stimulus money. Through all of these ups and downs -- the school buses still ran, lunches were served, and students learned. While I did not agree with every aspect of the budget decisions of those days, I'll say this: Decisions were not always popular, yet disagreements were not personalized so far as I remember.
Fast forward to my new job as one member of the 5 person Board of County Commissioners. It is dynamic, there are lots of moving parts, and we are responsible for setting the budget for not only our own organization, but we have a hand in setting the budgets for the other constitutional offices as well--to include the property appraiser, the tax collector, the supervisor of elections, the clerk of the courts, and the sheriff's office. We have had initial budget workshops, multiple meetings, and administrator Jack Brown, as he is required to do, has presented the board with a balanced (tentative) budget. The property appraiser's office and the tax collector's office budgets have statutorily dictated, formulaic budgets approved by State offices-so we exercise limited control over those budgets other than to fund them. We have had no issues with those budgets, one is getting a very small increase (tax collector) and one will be receiving a modest increase of just over 4% (property appraiser).
The Clerk of the Courts and the Supervisor of Elections offices are both under our budgetary auspices and control, and both of these offices are receiving budget reductions this year of between 1-2%. Neither of these offices is being funded for employee pay increases. While nobody is happy-I have received no complaints from anyone (publicly or in emails) from either of these departments regarding their budgets for this year.
The Sheriff's office is a bit different. I'm still working out the best way to tackle this tough issue. We work with the ECSO, based upon their budget request that is submitted yearly to the BCC, to fund their operations to a level that is adequate for them to carry out their constitutional, law enforcement functions. For the past 5 years, the BCC has funded the ECSO with budgetary INCREASES averaging 4% yearly. This has been adequate to allow for the BCC to fund the sheriff for 3% pay increases for deputies for the last 4 years running. In addition to this, the ECSO has historically been the largest single recipient of LOST (Local Option Sales Tax) revenue--with the ECSO receiving $52+ million from this source over the last 10 year period. This year, the ECSO has requested an 8% increase over what was requested and received last year. 8%! This year, BCC employees have been
told to brace for the impact of no pay raises and significant belt-tightening due to a $9 Million shortfall we are facing, two of our four constitutional offices are facing budget reductions, we are embarking on the construction of a new jail--and we simply cannot afford to give an 8% increase to the ECSO. Currently, we have offered a 1.57% increases, and I have stated publicly that I would like to find a way to bump this number up, to allow for pay increases again. Other members of the board have expressed the same sentiment. My only caveat is that I believe if we offer pay increases for the Sheriff's office--we must give equal raises to our dispatchers, corrections officers, EMTs, Paramedics, and Fire Fighters. All first responders are important, they should all receive raises if monies are available.
With a little more than one month before the budget is finalized, the process is now devolving into a mean-spirited, condescending free-for-all of animosity and blame-hurling that did not have to happen, in my opinion.
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