BCJ articles are available on line at: http://www.boonecountyjournal.com/news/2015/Boone-County-News-09-25-15.pdf#page=1
By James Middleton
The “high water” mark in municipal revenue
collections for Boone County was reached in 2007 and
2008 before the bottom fell out in 2009. However, after
that point, revenue coming into the county needed for all
county funding requirements, saw that revenue decline
and revenue has not yet returned. Revenue collections
from all sources coming into Boone County has yet to
return to those levels and in the current budget preparations
for Fiscal Year 2016, the reductions in revenue are being
felt even more so than in previous years.
The years of 2009 through 2011 have been referred to
by county officials as the “Great Recession” when revenues
passed through a serious reduction that led county officials
to impose a variety of cost saving steps to control spending.
Many of those cost cutting steps had included voluntary
pay reductions and voluntary unpaid days off work. Others
had agreed to voluntary pay freezes and other forms of
employee salary controls and reductions.
Individuals have also left county employment and those
vacancies have not always been refilled with new hires.
Some of those vacancies remain even today including two
deputies and one secretary unfilled in the Boone County
Sheriff’s Department. An administrative clerk has retired
from the probation department, a county clerk has been
laid off and one deputy clerk in the treasurer’s office had
their hours reduced. One custodian has been laid off in
the administration building, one animal control worker has
retired and one dispatcher in the 911 center has left county
employ. In each of these instances, employees are no
longer working with the county and their vacancies have
not been refilled.
The need for this policy has hampered the overall
efficiency of county government with the loss of personnel
and the county deciding that those vacancies would not be
refilled. These facts and others were laid out in a special
meeting of the Boone County Board finance committee
meeting that occurred this week.
Boone County administrator Ken Terrinoni dedicated
part of the meeting to presenting to the committee members
the history that has led to this point, how this point was
reached and what the current situation holds for the new
Fiscal Year 2016 in Boone County government.
The chairman of the Boone County Board Bob
Walberg (District 1) was at the meeting and he described
the event as one in which preliminary information was
given regarding the potential new budget. It is likely
that far more information will follow in another special
finance committee meeting scheduled to occur on Monday
evening, September 30.
It should be noted that in the current budget for Fiscal
year 2015 that is just nearing its conclusion, members of
the County Board agreed to allow $150,000 to be available
for use to manage some of the expenses associated with
law enforcement activities in the county. That funding
came from the annual surplus of collected revenue that
comes to the county in the form of the public safety sales
tax that was approved a decade ago when county voters
agreed to erect the new Boone County Jail and to pay off
the bonds created to fund that construction through the use
of a half-cent public safety sales tax.
In the meeting this week, the finance committee
members heard from County representative Paul Larson
(District 2) who said that the county in Fiscal Year 2016
might need to access revenue from the same source to the
extent of from $300,000 to $400,000 to erase a potential
deficit. Mr. Larson is a past chairman of the County Board
finance committee. The possible use of that money was not
approved and really no aspects of what could become the
final budget was approved but these points and others were
brought for discussion purposes.
Mr. Terrinoni said after the meeting, “There are two
primary reasons for the possible deficit in the new budget
and that is first caused by the inability to provide jail space
to neighboring municipalities to house their detainees and
the second reason is the rapidly increasing self-insured,
healthcare costs for the county.” Last year the county ran
near a deficit due to a number of serious healthcare claims
from county employees that were not expected. This year,
because many of the available jail cells in the County Jail
are occupied by local detainees, that cell space cannot be
used by other municipalities to hold their detainees. When
the jail was being considered for construction, one of the
selling features was that the county could lease jail space
to neighboring municipalities and the federal government
to hold their detainees waiting for trial.
Mr. Terrinoni also said that at this point, the county
could be looking at a potential $1.1 million deficit for
Fiscal Year 2016. Part of the reason for that deficit is also
due to the state not paying some salaries that they share
with the county. The state’s attorney’s salary and that of
the probation workers and other salaries are not being paid
by the state. Mr. Terrinoni said, “If the state’s makes up
those salaries, and we expect that they will, the deficit
could drop to $800,000.”
Sources outside the
county have indicated
that the state is paying
some of their day-to-day
expenses by not making
payments to municipalities
that they are mandated to
make. Further, the state
is also using this money
earmarked for municipal
governments and avoiding
either approving a new
budget or enacting
appropriation measures.
It should also be noted
that a municipal budget is
a framework that identifies
paths by which revenue
can be spent to manage the
municipality. At this point, many ideas are being discussed
to manage what likely will be a budget deficit in one
amount or another. Though every department that makes
up Boone County will propose potential initiatives or new
ways to spend their funding, very few of those proposed
initiatives will likely be approved.
Mr. Walberg and Mr. Terrinoni both indicated after
the special meeting that there is very little likelihood that
any of those initiatives will be approved. A few might be
included in the budget but no one is, as yet, certain which
initiatives could be approved.
The special meeting of the Boone County Board finance
committee is scheduled to occur next Monday, September
30 at 6 p.m. It is possible that by that meeting, a clearer
picture of the new budget for Fiscal Year 2016 will be
better defined but leading to that meeting, negotiations and
discussions continue.
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