July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.
Cuts coming this year
Jay County Council
The Jay County Council reviewed the effects of state-imposed property tax caps Wednesday night, which means it will need to remove about $85,000 from six county budgets.
Jay County auditor Nancy Culy presented the council with a breakdown of budget adjustments that will need to be made to tax funds due to property tax caps, which limit the amount of tax that can be paid to a certain percentage of assessed value.
The caps mean the council will now have to go into its 2010 budget, which it has been operating on since the beginning of the year, and remove the $84,376.
The council will need to remove $54,602.18 from the general fund, which constitutes operating budgets for most of the county's departments.
Other county funds include county health, $2,321.35; cumulative bridge, $8,650.99; Jay Emergency Medical Service, $10,352.35; cumulative capital development, $6,618; and reassessment, $1,831.13.
The caps also affect other tax funds not administered by the county council - including Jay Schools, libraries and township governments.
"This is what the circuit breaker is doing to us," said council member Marilyn Coleman after reviewing the list.
"Every government unit, it's hit them," said council president Gerald Kirby. "We have no choice. It has to be done."
The effect of property tax caps isn't something the council or the auditor can predict during budget season, which typically occurs in the fall. However, the effect seen this year can be used as a litmus for future years, since 2010 is the first year the tax caps, which were phased in at half-percents over a couple years, were at their final values of 1 percent for homes, 2 percent for rental properties and 3 percent for businesses.
"(Departments) are going to have to recognize this is going to happen every year," Coleman said.
Council members expressed concern about trying to make further cuts from budgets that are already running thin.
"What worries me is JEMS," Coleman said, noting one example. "We have to cut $10,352."
That department has been operating off a loan from the county's rainy day fund this year and has had higher expenses than it has collected through taxes and services billing for two years.
Other departments have already been cut near the bone after the council cut all "400 accounts," which are used to purchase new equipment.
Following the review of the tax cap breakdown, Kirby revisited his idea to have county departments cut back their departmental budgets up to another 10 percent from this year's figure for 2011. He suggested the idea at March meeting and presented other council members with a draft letter to be sent to department heads.
"We are asking each Department and Office to submit a budget that is between 8 percent and 10 percent below the budget you presented last year," the letter reads. "... Your reduction can come from anyplace (sic) within you (sic) budget but please remember there will be a very tight rein on the additional appropriations next year."
Although the council has shied away from suggesting cuts in personnel or reduction in hours in the past, the method was floated in March's meeting as a possible measure and indirectly stated in both the letter and by Kirby again Wednesday.
"There's no sacred cows," he said.
Although the council is asking for around a 10 percent reduction, members recognized that even that effort may not be enough. And in at least one case, the Jay County Jail, that budget will grow in 2011 since it will include additional staffing and operating costs due to the jail expansion, which should be operational sometime this fall.
The draft letter also asks department heads to submit a short narrative explaining their chosen cuts and/or justifications for not cutting in certain areas.
Kirby also informed the council that a four-person committee has been formed to meet with department heads and review department expenses in an effort to ease the budget process. Coleman, councilman Dan Orr, county commissioner Faron Parr, and financial consultant Greg Guerrettaz were named as members of that committee.
"I want to have them take a long hard look at anything and everything," Kirby said. "It is looking like it's going to be tough."
In other business Wednesday, the council:
•Approved an appropriation of $70,709.42 in innkeeper's tax. The money will be appropriated in three installments of $30,709.42 and two payments of $20,000.
•Approved an appropriation of $15,800 to the Drug Free Commission. The money comes from fees collected by the courts in drug related cases.
•Approved appropriations totaling $78,327 to JEMS to cover budget shortfall.
•Approved an appropriation of $7,200 to the bio-terrorism fund from a state H1N1 grant to pay for equipment purchases made by the health department.
•Approved an appropriation of $1,030.56 to the sheriff's budget from funds collected during Operation Pullover.
•Approved an appropriation of $171,791.46 to the Economic Development Income Tax fund. The money is from two years of unused funds budgeted to the county highway department.
•Approved an appropriations of $3,500 and $1,000 from probation user fees to purchase bulletproof vests, Tasers and computer equipment for the probation department.
•Approved an appropriation of $47,000 to the sheriff's budget to cover cost of two new police cruisers.
•Approved an appropriation of $1,200 from deferral funds to help the Dunkirk Police Department purchase new digital recording equipment.
•Forwarded a tax abatement request from Minnich Poultry, 8563 East 300 North, Portland, to the Tax Abatement Advisory Committee. The company is asking for a 5-year tax abatement and plans to build a 218,000 barn to replace an older one at a cost of $535,000. The expansion should create 2.8 new jobs.
•Appointed Mike McKee to the Jay County Library Board.
•Were informed by council attorney George Lopez that he will be sending a letter to a former Jay County Community Corrections employee who quit and was paid for two days that she did not work. The employee has not paid back the amount. Lopez said he will send a letter asking for repayment and that the county may file a small claims suit if the money is not received.
•Were informed by commissioner Milo Miller Jr. that he received a quote for painting the interior of the courthouse's third floor dome at about $100,000. The council informed Miller that he should hold off on the work at this time.[[In-content Ad]]
Jay County auditor Nancy Culy presented the council with a breakdown of budget adjustments that will need to be made to tax funds due to property tax caps, which limit the amount of tax that can be paid to a certain percentage of assessed value.
The caps mean the council will now have to go into its 2010 budget, which it has been operating on since the beginning of the year, and remove the $84,376.
The council will need to remove $54,602.18 from the general fund, which constitutes operating budgets for most of the county's departments.
Other county funds include county health, $2,321.35; cumulative bridge, $8,650.99; Jay Emergency Medical Service, $10,352.35; cumulative capital development, $6,618; and reassessment, $1,831.13.
The caps also affect other tax funds not administered by the county council - including Jay Schools, libraries and township governments.
"This is what the circuit breaker is doing to us," said council member Marilyn Coleman after reviewing the list.
"Every government unit, it's hit them," said council president Gerald Kirby. "We have no choice. It has to be done."
The effect of property tax caps isn't something the council or the auditor can predict during budget season, which typically occurs in the fall. However, the effect seen this year can be used as a litmus for future years, since 2010 is the first year the tax caps, which were phased in at half-percents over a couple years, were at their final values of 1 percent for homes, 2 percent for rental properties and 3 percent for businesses.
"(Departments) are going to have to recognize this is going to happen every year," Coleman said.
Council members expressed concern about trying to make further cuts from budgets that are already running thin.
"What worries me is JEMS," Coleman said, noting one example. "We have to cut $10,352."
That department has been operating off a loan from the county's rainy day fund this year and has had higher expenses than it has collected through taxes and services billing for two years.
Other departments have already been cut near the bone after the council cut all "400 accounts," which are used to purchase new equipment.
Following the review of the tax cap breakdown, Kirby revisited his idea to have county departments cut back their departmental budgets up to another 10 percent from this year's figure for 2011. He suggested the idea at March meeting and presented other council members with a draft letter to be sent to department heads.
"We are asking each Department and Office to submit a budget that is between 8 percent and 10 percent below the budget you presented last year," the letter reads. "... Your reduction can come from anyplace (sic) within you (sic) budget but please remember there will be a very tight rein on the additional appropriations next year."
Although the council has shied away from suggesting cuts in personnel or reduction in hours in the past, the method was floated in March's meeting as a possible measure and indirectly stated in both the letter and by Kirby again Wednesday.
"There's no sacred cows," he said.
Although the council is asking for around a 10 percent reduction, members recognized that even that effort may not be enough. And in at least one case, the Jay County Jail, that budget will grow in 2011 since it will include additional staffing and operating costs due to the jail expansion, which should be operational sometime this fall.
The draft letter also asks department heads to submit a short narrative explaining their chosen cuts and/or justifications for not cutting in certain areas.
Kirby also informed the council that a four-person committee has been formed to meet with department heads and review department expenses in an effort to ease the budget process. Coleman, councilman Dan Orr, county commissioner Faron Parr, and financial consultant Greg Guerrettaz were named as members of that committee.
"I want to have them take a long hard look at anything and everything," Kirby said. "It is looking like it's going to be tough."
In other business Wednesday, the council:
•Approved an appropriation of $70,709.42 in innkeeper's tax. The money will be appropriated in three installments of $30,709.42 and two payments of $20,000.
•Approved an appropriation of $15,800 to the Drug Free Commission. The money comes from fees collected by the courts in drug related cases.
•Approved appropriations totaling $78,327 to JEMS to cover budget shortfall.
•Approved an appropriation of $7,200 to the bio-terrorism fund from a state H1N1 grant to pay for equipment purchases made by the health department.
•Approved an appropriation of $1,030.56 to the sheriff's budget from funds collected during Operation Pullover.
•Approved an appropriation of $171,791.46 to the Economic Development Income Tax fund. The money is from two years of unused funds budgeted to the county highway department.
•Approved an appropriations of $3,500 and $1,000 from probation user fees to purchase bulletproof vests, Tasers and computer equipment for the probation department.
•Approved an appropriation of $47,000 to the sheriff's budget to cover cost of two new police cruisers.
•Approved an appropriation of $1,200 from deferral funds to help the Dunkirk Police Department purchase new digital recording equipment.
•Forwarded a tax abatement request from Minnich Poultry, 8563 East 300 North, Portland, to the Tax Abatement Advisory Committee. The company is asking for a 5-year tax abatement and plans to build a 218,000 barn to replace an older one at a cost of $535,000. The expansion should create 2.8 new jobs.
•Appointed Mike McKee to the Jay County Library Board.
•Were informed by council attorney George Lopez that he will be sending a letter to a former Jay County Community Corrections employee who quit and was paid for two days that she did not work. The employee has not paid back the amount. Lopez said he will send a letter asking for repayment and that the county may file a small claims suit if the money is not received.
•Were informed by commissioner Milo Miller Jr. that he received a quote for painting the interior of the courthouse's third floor dome at about $100,000. The council informed Miller that he should hold off on the work at this time.[[In-content Ad]]
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