Cuts requested from county departments

Commissioners looking at options to balance budget

Grant County commissioners have requested budget-cut scenarios of 4 and 7 percent from its departments to balance the 2005 budget.

But one county elected official questions where those numbers come from, and another fears he has nowhere to cut in his two-person office.

County Commissioner Leroy Allison said commissioners want to see a worst-case scenario and a better scenario so as to create options for the 2005 budget.

A 4 percent cut from the 2004's $22 million budget equals $880,000. A 7 percent cut equals $1.54 million. But the best-case scenario, Allison said, would be no cuts, though he doubts that would be realistic.

"We want to have a range," he said.

The commissioners met with elected officials and department heads last Thursday to talk dollars and cents.

The commission is beginning the budget process three months earlier than usual, Allison said. In October, department heads will begin putting together their budgets, then submit them to the commission in November. The three-member commission will begin acting on the budget in December, with a deadline of the end of the year.

Allison said revenues for the first seven months of this year are behind 1.5 percent from the budgeted amount. After seven, expenditures are going out at 4 percent less than budgeted, he said.

The hiring freeze initiated by the commission in June saved about $140,000, Allison said.

However, commissioners have not seen the final bill for indigent defense. While some attorneys who were conscripted after public defender Tom Earl was disbarred have accepted the $550 per case approved by commissioners, others have held for an hourly rate approved by superior-court judges.

Additionally, two high-profile cases, Raffy Gomez' mother and Evan Savoie and Jake Eakin, have yet to go to trial.

Reserve monies in the law and justice, which the commission has tapped for the last three years to balance the budget, also have dried up.

Allison said the commission has not set priorities as to whether positions will be cut or departments will initiate across-the-board cuts in hours, such as a 35-hour work week.

County Treasurer Darryl Pheasant said he doesn't know where the 4 percent and 7 percent numbers come from, and he's unsure where he can those dollars.

"What it means to us is that they're asking for staffing cuts," he said, adding, "I continue to wonder at what point does the public get to be involved in the process."

Pheasant added that some departments have seen large growth in recent years, while others have not. The requested cuts would punish all departments equally even when some have kept their budgets trim, he said.

County Coroner Jerry Jasman said his two-person office has nowhere to cut from its $205,000 budget. Because either he or the deputy coroner must be on duty at all time, he said he would not cut her salary, and other dollars are fixed on costs such as certification.

However, Jasman did say commissioners were approaching the elected officials to help balance the budget, which he appreciated.

The next budget meeting will take place Sept. 1 at 2:30 in the commissioner's hearing room.