Chairman’s Corner: Initial Thoughts on the County Budget

Last week we saw the first draft of a compilation of all the initial budgets that were submitted by department heads and elected officials. We will have another discussion on this summary of our quarter of a billion dollar budget at the Executive Committee meeting on Wednesday morning, August 7th.

Thank goodness this is just a preliminary stab at coming up with what will become the county budget. These early estimates indicate spending increase pressures of a little over $3,500,000 and non-property tax revenue increases of $1,500,000 over last year’s numbers.

The guiding principles of assembling the 2014 budget will be to honor the serious commitment to freeze the property tax levy, to deliver a truly balanced budget (not like a Springfield “balanced budget”), and that the process will be deliberate.

It was always peculiar to me that we congratulated ourselves on county transparency, but our CPA Treasurer and elected county Auditor did not have access to financial information stored on the computer system.

One of the most reassuring steps forward is that there are now many eyes on the budget process including the Treasurer and Auditor as well as many board members. There won’t be any secrets.

Of course, with this more public process, there will be more bumps in the road. But I firmly believe that, because we have good and intelligent people, working diligently in the open to balance our expenditures with our resources, we will be far better off.

Although it’s important to communicate where we are saving money, like the $2.4 million in bond interest, no lobbyist expense, etc., my hope is that the great majority of constituents recognize that, as long as we keep the property tax levy frozen, we have the flexibility to apply the resources provided by taxpayers as best we can to serve them well.