This is the first in a series of blog posts about the upcoming 2013 Monroe County budget hearings. Departments were requested to submit their budget requests to the auditor’s office by 8/15/2012. They were provided guidance to:
1. Give employees a flat raise of $1000 (but not otherwise increase personnel budget)
2. Flatline the supplies and services budgets.
3. Cut their fringe benefits rate by 1.5% (as a result of savings in health care and unemployment insurance, not reduction in benefits)
4. Include no capital items.
The following County General budget was submitted by departments for 2013:
| Fund | Dept | Dept Name | Total | 10s (Personnel) | 20s (Supplies) | 30s (Services) | 40s (Capital Items) |
| 2013 Requests | 2013 Requests | 2013 Requests | 2013 Requests | 2013 Requests | |||
| 1000-County General | |||||||
| 001 | Clerk | $1,951,661 | $1,794,461 | $94,000 | $48,200 | $15,000 | |
| 010 | Voter Registration | $79,694 | $60,667 | $5,727 | $13,300 | ||
| 062 | Election Board | $152,976 | $43,456 | $86,370 | $23,150 | ||
| 002 | Auditor | $555,526 | $555,526 | $0 | $0 | ||
| 003 | Treasurer | $388,812 | $330,512 | $15,500 | $42,800 | ||
| 004 | Recorder | $219,882 | $219,882 | $0 | $0 | ||
| 005 | Sheriff | $4,152,027 | $3,831,247 | $186,340 | $134,440 | ||
| 626 | Animal Control | $404,631 | $97,738 | $11,812 | $295,080 | ||
| 006 | Surveyor | $92,546 | $91,996 | $550 | $0 | ||
| 007 | Coroner | $190,346 | $60,137 | $2,600 | $127,609 | ||
| 008 | Assessor | $723,884 | $713,884 | $10,000 | $0 | ||
| 009 | Prosecutor | $1,768,214 | $1,686,714 | $10,500 | $71,000 | ||
| 270 | Child Support | $971,049 | $889,101 | $4,001 | $77,946 | ||
| 011 | Extension Services | $225,648 | $97,010 | $6,936 | $121,702 | ||
| 012 | Comm/Veteran Affairs | $65,537 | $64,272 | $365 | $900 | ||
| 061 | County Council | $341,358 | $234,118 | $2,000 | $105,240 | ||
| 067 | Human Resources | $110,427 | $101,427 | $2,000 | $7,000 | ||
| 068 | Commissioners | $2,913,088 | $413,894 | $4,900 | $2,494,294 | ||
| 069 | Fleet | $61,800 | $0 | $0 | $61,800 | ||
| 161 | County Buildings | $1,481,225 | $179,096 | $58,055 | $1,244,074 | ||
| 079 | Planning | $605,769 | $492,163 | $6,006 | $107,600 | ||
| 106 | Tech Services | $578,459 | $310,599 | $14,535 | $253,325 | ||
| 225 | Unified Courts | $4,977,360 | $4,325,563 | $36,676 | $615,121 | ||
| 271 | Public Defender | $1,205,319 | $1,116,369 | $8,000 | $80,950 | ||
| 277 | Comm/Legal | $440,045 | $375,720 | $1,125 | $63,200 | ||
| 308 | Weights & Measures | $58,980 | $52,770 | $3,910 | $2,300 | ||
| 312 | Building Commission | $594,137 | $548,177 | $17,085 | $28,875 | ||
| 361 | Emergency Management | $136,008 | $113,091 | $3,175 | $19,742 | ||
| 380 | Correctional Center | $4,447,265 | $3,335,141 | $119,007 | $993,117 | ||
| 803 | Parks & Recreation | $767,247 | $637,092 | $76,855 | $53,300 | ||
| TOTAL | $30,660,918 | $22,771,822 | $788,030 | $7,086,066 | $15,000 | ||
The bottom line for County General budget submissions is $30,660,918. This compares with a 2012 budget of $28,804,530 (after adjusting for a one-time reassessment charge in 2012). This is an increase of $1.85 million over 2012, or a 6.4% increase. This increase is clearly not supported by a corresponding increase in revenue (and includes many requests outside of the guidance provided), so the Council will need to make significant cuts before passing this budget.
I’ll provide more detail shortly on the reason for these increased requests.
