October 2008 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

|(1 �HoohsUer-TO:'OAU' Officials ' Paoe1| From: Mark Dobson To: Patty Godsey Date: 10/ 4:27 PM Subject: TO: All Department Heads & Elected Officials TO: All Department Heads & Elected Officials FROM: County Commissioners, County Council, & Auditor's Office RE: 2009 Budget Follow-up We wanted to give you another update as to where the budget process bthat gives amore definitive explanation than what is being reported inthe media. Weappreciate the time spent Monday discussing the 2009 budget. We also advised that we would need to schedule a series of meetings over the next 3 - 4 days to finalize the departmental budgets. However, werealize that doing onatthis point |spremature. EA100has created some real challenges/opportunities for us all. The significant change in this legislation is that the property tax pool for each governing body Is Inter -related. And, each entity's ability to raise revenue through the property tax levy is capped by the community's rate of growth. One of the intentions of the legislation was to foster greater cooperation among the various governmental bodies. Unfortunately the opposite is actually true. Governmental entities are each looking at ways that they can protect their portion of the property tax levy - not only In St. Joseph County - but statewide. So, budgets are being submitted for approval at the maximum advertised rates. Thus, mehave come to the conclusion that our budget must also bepassed toprotect our portion ofthe overall SJC levy. If we were to cut further, other governmental entities would receive agreater portion ofour levy. So, the County Council will be enacting a Levy Protection Budget at their November 12th Council meeting. This G4million dollar budget is reflective oJthe hard work you put inbntry and reduce your department's expenses. Itisalso abalanced budget based nnuse cfall available revenue sources. Are wedone? NN We have significant work boaccomplish together. VVehope that the State will certify our 2OO9budget inthe first quarter o[next year. lnthe meantime wewill becontinuing the budgeting process. Over the next two months we will schedule Inter -departmental meetings to further analyze the 2009 budget. VVestill believe that additional cuts will benecessary inour 2UU9budget. However, it is difficult to know at what level those will be when we do not even have a ZUUQcertified budget. We also will beestablishing the task force to look at the overall picture as indicated at the department head meeting. While we believe that our budget may be balanced for 2009, we know that 201Owill create awhole new series of challenges as the Circuit Breaker limits are decreased. Ithas also become apparent that our budget process has become dynamic. Historically, wehad fixed income flguncsthat wccould use hoevaluate nfflnandm|status one time each year. The revenue numbers used for budgeting did not vary much from the actual revenues. The shift to Income Tax based revenue streams and the constant "shifting sands" of the State Legislature has dramatically Impacted the budget process. Thank you for your hard work to date. We appreciate allyou have done tolesson the impact nfHEA10O1nnS]C Government while working hard hmdeliver service 0othe Public.