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McCook Gazette

County cuts $50K of needed $216,000

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Take note, Red Willow County elected officials. County commissioners Monday morning made about $50,000 of painful cuts in the only county budget over which they have total control.

In a budget workshop during their weekly meeting, commissioners reduced proposed spending on line item after line item in the county's road and bridges fund -- despite their growing concerns about the condition and maintenance of the county's roads.

Commissioners said at their Aug. 4 meeting that county officials must reduce proposed budgets where ever possible -- and that the road and bridge fund that commissioners oversee was not going to be exempt from the order.

Commissioners need to cut $216,000 from the total of the budgets proposed by elected officials and department heads for 2008-09. Commission Chairman Earl McNutt asked officials to make cuts to help cut county spending, to avoid an increase in taxes and to prevent difficult and potentially embarrassing budget hearings.

McNutt said they realize some budgets are already bare-bones, but he strongly recommended that everyone "relook" at their proposals and search for every opportunity to save money.

These line items were among those that suffered slashes when commissioners "relooked" at their own budget proposals Monday: appraisers' fees, consulting fees, part-time salaries, building repairs, road equipment repair parts and labor, road maintenance by others, radio repairs, chemical supplies, grease, oil, seeds, trees, plantings, right-of-way capital outlay, personal safety equipment and engineering fees.

McNutt said during a very preliminary budget hearing in July that he wants proposed spending much closer to actual spending from the previous year or years, avoiding as much "padding" and "cushioning" as possible.

Elected officials are to contact budget clerk Shirley Volz as soon as possible with their proposed reductions. The completed county budget must be turned into the state by Sept. 20.

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  • Sure hate to see the county cut their budget.

    Does anyone think the city could do the same?????

    -- Posted by edbru on Tue, Aug 12, 2008, at 5:53 PM

  • edbru, again you jump to conclusions that are not based on fact and again you go negative. FACT the county was trying to "cut" their budget so they would not need to increase their tax levy by 3.5 cents. The City has ALREADY kept their levy at the same rate it has been for several years with NO increase. The counties budget "cut" is therefore not a cut from what it was before, just a cut in what was requested. If the county meets their "cut" it will be the same levy as the year before, just like the city has already done.

    -- Posted by dennis on Wed, Aug 13, 2008, at 8:57 AM

  • Not conclusions, facts. More projects are made and more funds are needed. It has increased in the city. Just in ways you don't see. Not to start argueing, just an opinion like yours.

    -- Posted by edbru on Sat, Aug 16, 2008, at 6:10 PM

  • The reduction was in the amount available to be spent on raises. A raise is paid under salaries. All the budget cuts happened at the same time the city was raising the county's dispatching bill by $12,000. How much was cut from the MEDC btw?

    Basing county policy on annuity returns for retired people? Interesting. How do you propose to make that work? Many people didn't see a raise in their annuity but I'm sure there are people who have. Of course annuities are primarily structured around providing a guaranteed amount without relying on increases. Unless someone was gambling and decided to rely on a variable annuity. So how do you determine which people's accounts to go by and good luck trying to get the information in the first place.

    I'd say the majority of the years I've worked, I haven't had a raise but I never recall thinking that someone else shouldn't get a raise because I didn't... but go ahead, decrease their base salaries or eliminate any raises, it won't change what you pay in taxes or help you one iota. However, it may make you feel better that things are a little worse for some employees of the county , that's about it.

    The more the county can put away in the jail fund under the current levy, the better. If the county has to take over the jail responsibilities then the more they can put away now means less they'll have to increase property taxes for it later. The city made a huge step in passing the sales tax to provide the MEDC with $350,000 each year so it's a matter of prioritizing and assessing each agency's financial status, their abilities and needs. The MEDC is in much better shape than say, DASAS to meet the needs of its purpose and I wouldn't be surprised if they saw that the MEDC was being well funded as opposed to other agencies in McCook in dire need of funding.

    How much discretionary money comes out of the city budget to go the MEDC? The sales tax is mandatory as determined by the voters btw so can't count that.

    -- Posted by McCook1 on Mon, May 3, 2010, at 10:13 AM
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