By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post
The Ellis County Commission is calling for additional cuts to the 2019 proposed budget.
At Monday’s commission meeting they called on department heads to cut an additional 1 percent from their 2019 budgets requests.
According to County Administrator Phillip Smith-Hanes, the budget presented to the commission contained $22.37 million in General Fund expenditures and did not increase the countywide mill levy.
“The amount of spending proposed for 2019 balances to the amount of revenue that we expect plus the amount of cash carryover that we expect,” Smith-Hanes said.
But under the budget presented to the commission Monday the county had budgeted expenditures about $2.4 million more than expected revenues, according to Smith-Hanes.
Commissioner Barb Wasinger called on all departments to find areas where they can reduce spending.
“We just can’t do this. You can’t do that in your house, you can’t do that in your household budget,” Wasinger said. “And you can just raise the mill levy to cover the fact that we’re spending more than we’re bringing in.”
Commissioner Dean Haselhorst called it a “trend that has to come to an end.”
“You can’t spend $2 million more than you’re making every year unless you’re going to raise taxes every year but that’s not fixing the problem,” Haselhorst said.
At the beginning of the budget process, county department heads and outside agencies that receive funds from Ellis County were instructed to keep their budget requests relatively the same as 2018. Many of them did just that and some even trimmed their 2019 budget requests.
The commission began the budgeting process facing a $645,000 deficit between expected revenues and expenses. After two work sessions they were able to trim that gap. But the commission Monday signaled the current path they are on would not be acceptable.
“We don’t have a lot of options to raise money. Either you got to do a mill levy increase or you got to cut expenses,” said Haselhorst.
Wasinger said she had found areas where departments could cut spending.
“I’ve made all sorts of little cuts in here. I want to see if everyone can come back here with more,” said Wasinger. “There’s a problem, a significant problem, and there’s no way to fix it unless you start today.”
As one example, she said they could stop mailing out paycheck information to people who have their paychecks automatically deposited. She also questioned the need for operating 12 graders on the county’s roads.
Haselhorst said they could look into combining routes that graders run and not replacing graders as they age. He also said they should look at fixing equipment rather than buying new every time.
Administrator Smith-Hanes said those would both fall under equipment and that is different from operations. He explained that getting rid of equipment will not save operating costs, but reducing staff costs would be a way to reduce expenditures.
The commission discussed the possibility of a hiring freeze as a way to lower operating costs.
Commissioner Macy McClelland said she agreed with the other commissioners and said she was in favor of a hiring freeze. “However, I don’t know that there’s that many openings at this time.”
Wasinger said it keeps positions from being filled when they do open, adding that each department is going to have to look at ways to cut costs and they may have to “look at a reduction in staff and not operating with as many people in every department.”
The trend of the county spending more money than its gets back has been happening for a number of years, according to Smith-Hanes.
“It has been a pattern that has continued for a number of years,” said Smith-Hanes. “The exception, the one year that revenues exceed expenditures in the last five years was in 2015 when the commission transferred $3.1 million of oil and gas depletion money in, and that’s they only reason that revenues exceed expenditures in that year.”
Smith-Hanes said the staff presented the commission with a “proposal that is in conformance with everything that the commission has directed up to this point” and asked for direction from the commission.
Wasinger said she had identified cuts of 3 to 8 percent but asked for a 1 percent cut. “Something just has to be done,” she said.
“If they want us just to do it, that’s fine,” said Wasinger. “I think that when you are running your own department or your office you know better where you can take some of that from.
“The trend is that either we start doing it now or we just slash things later.”
The commission also said every department will be expected to cut 1 percent for 2019. No departments will be excluded.
County staff will present the commission with a new budget next Monday.