York County Press Release
YORK – The county commissioners had a lengthy, tedious budget workshop this past week as they work to cut spending from the proposed budget in order to lower the levy and minimize the increase in tax asking.
All the department heads submit their proposed budgets and then the commissioners go through each fund’s bottom line to trim down to a 3% increase in tax asking. That’s where the heavy lifting is – as the department heads submitted budgets which initially came to a 26% increase, $2 million higher in tax asking than last year. Also attributing to that big, initial increase are hefty increases in property/casualty and health insurance.
The budget committee, over a two-week period, trimmed a considerable amount from the initial budget, but was still faced this past week with cutting even more.
York County Commissioner Chairman Randy Obermier, who sits on the budget committee, told the other commissioners, “If we look at the tax asking last year, a 2% increase in tax asking only allows us to pay our premiums for property/casualty insurance and health insurance, both of which are going up. And that’s it, as far as extra spending, to stay at 2%. So there is no way to avoid a postcard meeting because we won’t get in under a 2% increase.”
A “pink postcard” meeting is now required by state law if a taxing entity is going to have a more-than-2% increase in tax asking. Constituents receive pink postcards in the mail, inviting them to a public meeting during which officials explain the increase.
“Everyone who protested their valuations said don’t raise taxes,” Obermier said. “The assessor will be giving us our valuation this afternoon, so we will have a better idea about our levy.” (The overall valuation for the county came in $1 billion higher than last year). The easy answer is we use the same levy as last year, which would give everyone their wish list but it would piss off all the taxpayers. We went back and looked at revenue but we are still $200,000 to $300,000 off (as far as how much has to be cut to hold down the increase). When we look at each fund, wages are a huge part of those increases. Since COVID, many of the wages and salaries have increased a lot. Maybe it’s time to start pumping the brakes on that. We aren’t the biggest taxing entity in the county, we are number three as the school districts are the largest with the municipalities being second. But we are still talking big money.
“The levy, set last year – we are sitting at 20 cents,” Obermier continued. “I’d like to see us get down to 18 cents. Last year, we spent $1.1 million on health insurance for employees and we don’t know where that is going to come in yet.”
“There is a cry out there to cut spending and hold us as low as we can be,” said Commissioner Daniel Grotz, who also sits on the budget committee. “We need to dive in and whittle away at what we can.”
A staff member from Aging Services told the commissioners, “I know you are doing as much as you can but for my agency, the wages aren’t necessarily livable for everyone. I think it would be more cost effective to keep the reliable staff we have.”
They have agreed to make some major purchases for the roads department out of the inheritance fund, which would eliminate those from the tax asking. They also cut $149,000 from the proposed budget for the county attorney’s office which would have been for additional staff. They also found $25,000 in cuts for the building and grounds fund.
“We identified $1.1 million cuts but we still have a gap,” Obermier said. “We adjusted the revenue but we still have a $600,000 gap of where we need to be.”
“We have made some good increases in wages in the past and there is nothing saying we have to continue the increases year to year,” Grotz said.
The commissioners have agreed to hold all outside entities to the same allocations they got last year, although they all asked for increases.
“We did carry over some revenue into the budget and our interest income went down slightly but that an income we can’t rely on,” Obermier said. “Once again, the main source of revenue comes from the property taxpayers.”
Obermier said he looked at some parcels – a $475,000 residential property and a quarter of ag land. “Soley on the county side, if we could get down to an 18-cent levy, taxes would still increase by $80 for the residential owner and $200 for the quarter of ag land. So even if we get down to 18 cents, there will still be an increase for taxpayers.”
After whittling away at different departments’ proposed spending, they got down to about a 19-cent levy. After more talks, they got to where they believed would be a 3% increase, which would still be a higher tax asking than last year.
The commissioners still have to set wages for the deputies of elected officials (clerk, treasurer, assessor, clerk of district court, public defender, attorney) and those in departments not led by an elected official (such as roads, veterans services, maintenance, etc.). Many of the commissioners said at this point, the end budget will probably come down to those wages and salaries.
“Again, there is a cry out there to bring spending under control because the valuations went up,” Grotz said. “I’m hearing we need to hold down spending and don’t just hand out raises to everyone.”
“I agree, maybe there shouldn’t just be automatic increases at a certain time of year but we also only have control over certain departments’ wages,” Obermier noted.
“Well, life isn’t always fair,” said Commissioner Andy Bowman. “I never worked a job where performance wasn’t a consideration for a raise and they just came automatically. I think some departments need raises. We did a lot with roads last year. Some of the proposed raises (considering all departments) are warranted and some are obscene. And I think blanket raises drive everyone to be average at best.”
At this point in the conversation, they were down to a $7.613 million tax asking and an 18.75-cent levy.
“Once we have the assessor’s number, we can do some balancing,” Obermier said.
“I think I could deal with a 3% increase in overall spending,” Grotz said. The others seemed to agree. “Anything under that is great and anything over that I don’t think we can deal with.”
Jill Clay, the consultant who works with the board on creating the budget, cautioned, however, “at 3% increase, purely based on the math standpoint, is a struggle because your property/casualty and health insurance costs are higher than 10%.”
“We need to run this county as a business and if the insurance costs are that much higher, then we will need to make more cuts to make up that money,” Bowman said
“So a 3% increase is what we are looking at?” Obermier asked his fellow board members
“I think that’s a pretty good target,” Grotz said. “We will still end up with pink postcards.”
“No doubt,” Obermier responded. “On Sept. 2, we will have firm numbers and we will set those firm numbers. Then we will set the postcard meeting and the budget hearing. We are in a three-sided vise – taxpayers, state and department heads, who all want different things.”
