County works on budget issues

Even after a mild assessed valuation increase and a few cuts here and there, the Crawford County Commission still faces a dilemma. The issue is that there will either have to be cuts to the budget or an increase in the mill levy.

“We can figure out why we’re here, but how do you get that back?” asked commissioner Linda Grilz.

Using expected revenues, assessed valuation and 2012 budget numbers, commissioners took an intense look at the fiscal year 2013 budget on Friday and the initial numbers weren’t good.

Health insurance, which is a major expense for the county, is expected to see a four percent increase in expenses for 2013. In raw dollars, that will mean about a $230,000 increase in employee benefits. In tax implications, about a one-mill increase over last year.

The other budget hit will be in the special city/county highway funds that the county road and bridge department receives annually from the state of Kansas. The county had budgeted a little more than $1.01 million from the state in revenues from that fund, yet has only received $869,000. The difference amounts to about 6/10 of a mill that the county will have to make up.

The current mill levy is at 49.115 mills, and when commissioners first looked at the detailed budget, the numbers projected a 51.074 mill levy, or a 1.959 mill increase. After a few adjustments and budget maneuvers by the commissioners, the commissioners lowered the projected mill levy to 50.627, still a 1.512 mill increase. That’s when the tough discussions began.

Commissioners asked county clerk Don Pyle if he needed as much for the elections budget next year, since there will not be a federal election next year. Pyle did not jump at the opportunity.

“I could, but the next year’s we’ll have almost as big an election as this year’s, because of the governor election and Congressional elections,” Pyle said. “It’s hard to get back something we give up. Next year, we could do with $20,000-$30,000 less, but the next year you’d have to have it back.”

Commissioners decided not to make any moves on that front at this time at Friday’s meeting.

The budget was not completed even after a lengthy work session after Friday’s regularly scheduled county commission meeting. Grilz suggested that it is difficult trying to make small cuts to individual budgets.

“I don’t like picking and choosing certain things to reduce and not everything. If we reduce health, I don’t like singling out a department,” Grilz said. “If we do that, we should look at every department in general, and we’re not looking at one department and saying, ‘We’ll cut you to make our budget.’”

She suggested giving a certain percentage decrease across the board rather than “nitpicking” individual budgets. Commissioner Carl Wood said he wasn’t sure that was quite fair.

“We’d be punishing the ones that stay under the budget, but not punishing those that go over,” he said. “To me, there’s got to be places where people can make a sacrifice.”

Grilz said she was frustrated with the lower state revenues, and that a point will come where no further cuts could be made.

“What we’ve been trying to do is absorb, absorb, absorb,” Grilz said. “We can budget without an increase in the mill levy and absorb what the state rolls off onto our shoulders. But there’s a limit to that, or you’ll have to stop services.”

Before taking a break, Wood asked the other commissioners what more they could do.

“You can make more cuts,” replied commissioner Bob Kmiec. “That’s all we can do.”

Andrew Nash can be reached at andrew.nash@morningsun.net or by calling 231-2600 ext. 140.