County cuts: More fees, less road maintenance possible

Commissioners say new sales tax may be needed

Posted 12/19/19

Increasing fees, making jurors buy their own lunches and no longer maintaining little-used roads are among the steps that Park County commissioners will consider in the coming weeks, as they look to …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

County cuts: More fees, less road maintenance possible

Commissioners say new sales tax may be needed

Posted

Increasing fees, making jurors buy their own lunches and no longer maintaining little-used roads are among the steps that Park County commissioners will consider in the coming weeks, as they look to close a roughly $2 million budget deficit.

However, after extensive study and brainstorming, county officials have concluded it will likely take more than cuts to get the budget to balance: On Tuesday, commissioners gave their strongest indication yet that they will ask voters to approve an additional 1 percent sales tax next year.

Back in 2012, Commissioner Joe Tilden did not support a general purpose tax that some of his colleagues endorsed, feeling the county didn’t need it. But in 2020, he’s prepared to “be the first one leading that parade.”

“If the people of Park County want us to maintain the services at the levels we are right now, we’re going to have to find more money,” Tilden said Tuesday. “That’s all there is to it.”

The county had to pull $1.2 million from reserves and delay $850,000 worth of routine road maintenance to balance the current year’s budget, and commissioners have warned that they won’t do that again — even if it means drastic cuts.

Tilden and Commissioner Dossie Overfield led a committee made up of the county’s elected officials and department heads that spent months studying the budget situation. While they came up with dozens of ideas, across the board cuts and layoffs could still be necessary to close the gap. That’s one reason why an additional sales tax was raised as a possible solution on Tuesday.

Commissioner Lee Livingston, who’d also been noncommittal about the general purpose tax that failed in 2012, said he’d support one next year — as long as the county was careful to not just spend the money.

Commissioner Lloyd Thiel agreed that, after the county makes additional cuts, raising more revenue is “the best, most reasonable fix” for the budget crunch. However, Thiel suggested the public won’t support a new tax until they see things like longer lines or bigger potholes from cutbacks.

Meanwhile, Commissioner Overfield expressed concern that a general purpose tax could potentially be derailed by other local governments seeking a specific purpose tax — a scenario in which voters would be deciding whether to add up to 2 percent in additional sales taxes.

“I’m not sure you’re going to go to the voters with both of them,” Overfield said, saying there would need to be “a real heavy discussion.”

Northwest College leaders have indicated that they may ask for a 1 percent specific purpose tax next year to fund a new student center.

Regardless, any revenue from a new tax would be more than a year away. In the meantime, commissioners are taking up the budget committee’s recommendations.

The panel’s seven-page report generally makes the case that the county has held spending and employee levels relatively flat while revenue has declined.

“We have not grown county government and we’re providing a lot more services,” Tilden said.

Between fiscal years 2009-2010 and 2018-19, the county upped its spending by roughly 10.8 percent, which, at an average of 1.2 percent a year, is less than inflation. Meanwhile, the county’s general fund revenue has dropped by about 12 percent. That turned a $4.5 million surplus in 2009-10 into a $795,000 deficit a year ago.

The worsening figures had been obscured by “padding” factored into past budgets, but after years of trimming, that cushion is now effectively gone.

Last year, the county spent $24.65 million out of the general fund while collecting $23.86 million in revenue. The county’s goal is to get spending down to $23 million in the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, 2020.

“Tightening the belt is not easy but it is necessary, even if it means trimming non-essential services or in some cases staff,” says the committee’s report.

One suggestion is that, as all “non-essential” positions come open, commissioners require departments to go without that position for three to six months to see if it can be eliminated; commissioners have already instituted a hiring freeze, but generally have been allowing departments to fill their open positions.

The county could also save money by requiring employees to start paying a portion of their health insurance premiums and retirement plan contributions, the report says.

As for cuts, eliminating or reducing the county’s maintenance of subdivision roads and those serving three or fewer landowners could save $335,000 a year — or the county could start charging subdivision residents fees for maintenance, the report says.

Trimming staff in the buildings and grounds department would save $60,000, better use of temporary help during the Park County Fair could save another $12,000 and no longer providing lunch to jurors in district court could save $600 a year, the report says.

Other ideas involve shuffling money around; for instance, the county could pull $500,000 a year out of its road construction fund for more routine maintenance and improvement projects.

As for money-making ideas, the report suggests increasing fees for planning and zoning permits and new fees for county right-of-way permits and access to public records maintained by the county clerk, while a long-discussed plan to house out-of-state inmates at the county jail could bring in $237,000 a year.

Some ideas have already been implemented or are underway. For instance, the Park County Library System eliminated a part-time position in Cody, saving about $16,600, a new safety and employee drug testing program will save $23,500 a year on worker’s compensation costs and commissioners may soon eliminate $10,000 worth of duplicative GIS software licenses.

The budget committee considered the idea of selling the Park County Complex to a private buyer, but didn’t find it was a good one. The complex is a money-maker in good years and there are concerns that the county — which would have to lease space that the Cody library uses from the new owner — would lose money in the long run.

All of the ideas will be considered by the commissioners at a work session on Jan. 7, their first meeting of 2020.

“Let’s not kick it down the road any more,” Thiel said, adding, “This is serious. ... we need to make cuts, because I will not support a deficit next year.”

Thiel said he’ll again advocate for the county to slash the $15,000 it annually provides to recycling operations around the county.

Comments