By the end of the first week of budget hearings, the Brown County Council was considering three scenarios when deciding whether or not to raise taxes to support county operations for 2020.
The first was to increase taxes by accepting the state’s “growth quotient” to cover expenses, then paying county employees their “longevity pay” ($100 per year of service) and some sort of raise, ranging from 1 to 3 percent.
The second was to increase taxes only for uncontrollable expenses, like increases in the cost for the ambulance contract and for the 2020 election.
The third was to not raise taxes, cut government spending, and keep departments to their 2019 budgets for 2020.
In the end, on Aug. 28, the council voted to raise property taxes to allow for a budget that matches revenue and provide 1-percent raises to county employees. The idea was to help county employees cover the increased cost of health insurance if it rises next year.
The council had heard budget requests from all departments the week prior.
Council member Darren Byrd voted against the proposed budget and John Price was absent on Aug. 28 due to a previously scheduled vacation.
Four county residents were in the audience to observe all four nights of budget hearings. They said they supported the council’s third scenario of not raising taxes, cutting government spending and keeping departments to their 2019 budgets.
Resident Sherrie Mitchell also asked the council to lower pay grades for employees receiving paid lunch, except for police officers, and suggested moving 12 county jobs to contract jobs, including IT, the surveyor, the building inspector and court security, citing increasing salary costs over the past six years.
The council did not support those suggestions.
Revenue vs. requests
Income taxes will not increase under the council’s budget proposal.
The county is going to raise property taxes by the percentage the state allows, called the “growth quotient.”
When the council approved this budget proposal, it was assumed that property tax rates will increase by $1.25 per $100,000 of assessed value. The council was told that the maximum additional money the county will realize from this move would be about $142,000 in revenue. On average, it would will result in about a $8 or $9 increase in taxes per parcel. “There will be some parcels that are $50 and other parcels that’s $1, but the average is only $8 or $9 a year to take the growth quotient,” council Vice President Dave Critser said.
Last week, Jacque Clements with the Association of Indiana Counties clarified the amount the levy increase would be bring into the county. She was unable to attend the Aug. 28 meeting.
The change the council voted for would bring in an additional $159,295 in revenue, which equates to about 12 cents per every $100 of assessed value.
For the owner of a home with a $150,000 assessed value and a homestead deduction on file, that would equal an increase of $8.26 on property taxes for the home annually. That increase factored in both the standard and supplemental deductions.
Accepting the levy increase would generate an additional $159,295 total on the county’s portion of the property tax rate.
In July, the council voted to “thaw” a property tax levy freeze that had been in effect for the past five years.
For 2020, the proposed county budget for all funds, including those funded by a tax levy and those monitored by the state, was $20,244,757, according to a handout from Clements.
Initially, the county was looking at more than $600,000 in cuts that had to be made to multiple budgets, including the cumulative capital development fund, which was underfunded by almost $245,000.
At the conclusion of the first week of budget hearings, the council was looking at having to cut $40,000 from requests.
Commissioner Diana Biddle said she would make $40,000 more in cuts to her current budgets this year to create a cash reserve to cover that shortfall next year. She had cut $370,000 out of the commissioners’ general fund during the third night of budget reviews.
Most departments kept their budget requests for 2020 to what they were approved for in 2019, with the exception of asking for 3-percent raises for their employees, which was one of the requests the council made ahead of budget reviews.
Some departments did request more money than that for 2020, though.
Court and election
The county’s election board requested $233,542.64 more for 2020 than it had for 2019 because next year is an election year. Of that, $157,500 was approved for leasing new voting machines and electronic pollbooks.
The council approved $13,800 for ballots and printing related to the election.
The election board also requested $3,000 for new laptops that would be able to handle new election software.
No decision has been made about which voting machines county voters will use, so it is unknown exactly how much they will cost. The election board will host a voting machine try-out night on Wednesday, Oct. 9 from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Brown County Public Library to give residents to test all the options and give their opinions. The new voting machines will allow for a paper ballot trail, which will soon be required by the state.
The budget that Brown County Clerk Kathy Smith requested to run her office in 2020 was also higher than her 2019 budget by more than $17,000. The council worked to cut her requests to around $9,200 including raises for her and her employees. Council President Dave Redding told Smith they would work with her to cut more once other budget numbers were finalized.
The 2019 total amended budget for the public defender board was $234,741.82 as of July. The board requested $198,178.41 for 2020, including 3-percent raises.
“We don’t know what we’re going to spend, we don’t know what appeals will occur, so altogether we just don’t know what we’ll spend,” board member Rick Kelley said.
At the Aug. 19 hearing, the council also unanimously approved moving an additional $30,000 from the general fund to the board’s line that pays the attorneys for cases that go over 20 hours. In June, the council had approved moving $30,000 from the general fund to the public defender fund, when an attorney had a conflict and a replacement had to be hired.
Board member Ruth Johnson told the council that the county’s general fund does get reimbursed 40 percent each quarter.
Prosecutor Ted Adams kept his budget for 2020 to 2019 approved levels with the exception of 3-percent raises and a $3,594 pay raise for the office’s criminal clerk, who is performing more paralegal duties. That pay raise was denied, and so was a pay grade increase request for the health department’s assistant office manager.
Parks and rec
On Aug. 20, Mark Shields, the director of the Brown County Parks and Recreation Department, presented his budget request, which was more than $51,000 over the 2019 level.
Parks and rec’s proposal included raises, along with $18,089.13 for a maintenance supervisor job that is jointly funded between that department and the county. Other requests included $10,000 for a remodel of the restroom and maintenance shed at Deer Run Park, $9,000 for mowing equipment, $7,500 for legal services, $2,500 for mowing and maintenance, and $500 for skate park maintenance.
The restroom building needs a new roof and those facilities are in need of renovations, Shields said about the $10,000 request. “We’ve had a lot of positive feedback from the public with the facilities (at Deer Run Park). … (But) the consensus I’ve heard recently is they would like to see updates to the restrooms,” he said.
Shields said his department had brought in $48,000 from program fees this year. Last year, the department brought in $77,000, but Shields said that fluctuates each year. He said parks and rec tries to get 10 percent of that in profit to put back into supporting the park.
“Typically, we try to keep fees as low as possible to allow as many youth that are maybe at or below poverty level so they can participate in that. We evaluate those fees every year,” he said. In the last few years, program fees have gone up by $5 or $10 to reflect fees in surrounding counties.
Shields said his department used to follow the same guidelines for free and reduced lunches at Brown County Schools to allow students to participate in activities for free. But with more than half the school population qualifying for that lunch program, half of the department’s participants would be free, he said.
Shields said that mostly, program participation is up this year.
Byrd asked about the possibility of using $13,000 in timber money from the recent logging on State Road 135 North to update the restrooms. Office Manager Michelle Mosley said the department is holding on to that money in case legislative action is taken by residents upset by the logging. “If we get sued, then that’s $13,000 we don’t have to ask council for,” she said.
During night two of budget reviews, the council encouraged Shields to look at what additional revenue could come into his department, like increasing program fees, and payments coming from a possible cellphone tower that could be placed on park property, and use that for capital improvements.
Biddle also told Shields that his department still has $65,000 of the county’s capital improvement loan that can be used to update lighting on the baseball and softball fields, which will help the department host more tournaments and bring in more revenue.
After that meeting, Shields reached out to Redding to see exactly what he needed to do to get his budget approved. Redding advised him to bring his requests back to what was approved in 2019 except for the addition of the maintenance supervisor, which had previously been agreed upon. His revised budget request included only the 3-percent raises and the maintenance job at $17,333.46. The council also granted $2,500 to create a new legal services line in the parks and rec budget.
Paul Navarro was one of four county residents who attended each budget review.
He encouraged the council to not underfund parks and rec, because it goes against the county’s goal of attracting more families to live here to bolster school enrollment and increase the tax base. “When you go out there on a weeknight there’s probably 100 people there, families, recreation of all different types,” he said. “If that’s your goal (to attract more families), if you’re cutting funding on recreation, which provides motivation for families and something for kids to do, you’re sabotaging your whole goal.”
Veterans services
Three-percent raises were requested for Veterans Service Officer Ron Higgins and Outreach Liaison Dave Pate. They were approved at 1 percent.
Higgins also asked to change Pate’s job from part-time to full-time at an additional cost of $17,336.10. That was not approved.
Higgins also asked for $2,540 to help cover annual training costs. This was not cut during discussions.
Mitchell suggested running the veterans affairs office with volunteers, as it was done initially.
Critser said that worked for awhile, but after the initial volunteer left, the program began to go downhill. “It might as well not have been an office there,” he said.
Mitchell argued that the active veteran community here could step up to volunteer and provide these services. “I don’t think there’s any reason to pay anyone to run that,” she said.
Some council members disagreed. “My husband was a veteran. He died because he went to Vietnam. I think they deserve anything they can get and they need help (getting benefits),” said Glenda Stogsdill-Johnson.
Critser said veterans from surrounding counties would come to Higgins for help in securing their benefits when they weren’t getting help in their home counties. “He got them their money, their monthly money, because he had the knowledge to do it. A volunteer is not going to go to school and have that knowledge. It’s as simple as that,” he said.
In 2019, the veterans service office budget was $68,738. Higgins brings in more than $8 million a year in benefits to veterans here. “That is cash money to the veterans, and it’s spent in the county,” Biddle said. “… There were a lot of people here not getting their benefits because they couldn’t navigate it.”
Planning ahead
During the third night of budget hearings, Biddle cut $214,000 from the cumulative capital development fund, which was one of the underfunded tax levy funds, according to Clements’ summary of appropriation balances.
Within that fund, the commissioners had requested $150,000 to create a new office space for the coroner. Coroner Earl Piper will retire from his main job at Bond-Mitchell Funeral Home this year, and that is where he has been taking bodies involved in coroner cases when the need arises.
This summer, the council also approved moving $107,344 from the rainy day fund to cover the remaining bill from the ambulance contract. The total bill for ambulance service with Columbus Regional Hospital in 2018 was $547,540. Biddle said she paid CRH $440,196. On July 15, the council was asked to approve transferring $107,344 to pay the remainder.
The ambulance service budget for 2020 is set at $480,000. Biddle had requested $550,000.
In June, the council approved moving $200,000 from the rainy day fund to the county’s health trust fund.
The council approved $725,000 for group health insurance in the commissioners’ general fund. The commissioners had requested $1 million for 2020.
During the final night of budget hearings, Stogsdill-Johnson asked Biddle if county employees would see a raise in the cost of health insurance next year. Biddle said that she would not know until bids are received for reinsurance next year.
Helping to cover the cost of health insurance is one reason why council members decided to give the 1-percent raises.
“The 1-percent raise I was totally against when I came in the first meeting,” councilman Art Knight said. “But then after thinking about it, we gave no raise last year, so we’re only increasing one-half percent over the last two years, and I know the insurance went up more than that over the years. They really aren’t getting a raise, but they are getting the benefits, and that’s very important.”
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During 2020 budget hearings last month, residents asked about the possibility of doing a study to ensure county government does not employ too many people for its population.
Resident Tim Clark said the county should also do department performance reviews and employee reviews. Department reviews and a workload analysis could be done by a volunteer citizens group: “Get a diverse group of volunteers of different people who have expertise including government personnel and have that group and work together to look at our costs,” he said.
He said it’s important for the community to know how county financing works, and that citizen group could be a place to start that education. “It’s not rocket science. Take the magic out of the words and walk me through the algorithms on these different increases, these different funds and what you can or cannot do. I think we can develop a citizen guide over the next year to educate people on what this is,” he said.
Council President Dave Redding said he supported the idea of looking at how departments work to make sure everyone is working efficiently, but that the decision to examine the way things are being done would be left up to the Brown County Commissioners.
“We obviously support that, but I’m not sure I can do anything other than say that’s a good idea to look at our general efficiency,” he said.
Auditor Chief Deputy Sandy Cain said that eliminating employees from offices like the treasurer’s office where there are two full-time people and one part-time person will make it difficult for employees to use their vacation time. “People coming into the offices do not like that. They want to be waited on; they want to be helped. If you have one person in the offices, that can’t be done,” she said.
Commissioner Diana Biddle said the three largest departments in the county are understaffed already: County highway, the sheriff’s department and the jail. “That represents more than 50 percent of our employees,” she said.
County council Vice President Dave Critser said workloads fluctuate in county offices, too.
“The work is like a roller-coaster, plus the fact that we’re not in the profit-making business, we’re in the service business,” he said.
“That would be like a restaurant, it’s a service business. Sometimes you go into a restaurant and you get waited on right away. The next time you go in, you may not. County business, even right down to the highway, is a service business. That’s what took me a while when I first started (on the council), because I was a businessman and I was looking to turn that profit. It’s an impossibility.”
Clark also encouraged Brown County Council members to think ahead as they plan for future budgets by identifying unfunded requirements, like capital improvements at Deer Run Park; requiring budgets and plans for any new spending; and getting projections on revenue streams, like income and property taxes.
“When you look at that infrastructure, what is funded and what is unfunded? When we talked about the justice center, you identified the crisis on renovation in the courthouse, the prosecutor’s office is not a healthy place to work, Deer Run office has a road sign that covers the floor, on and on. Where is the plan that addresses those particular needs?” Clark said.
“Those are not listed anywhere. We’re talking millions of dollars that are unfunded. … Keep that capital improvement plan updated.”
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