Budget called into question

Jay County’s budget passed on first reading.
But it wasn’t without spirited discussion. And it wasn’t unanimous.
Jay County Council passed its 2016 budget 4-2 Wednesday, with Ted Champ and Jeanne Houchins voting in opposition after Champ took issue with a decision last week to transfer $500,000 from the rainy day fund to cover projected shortfalls in the general fund.
The budget came in at $15,746,335.23, of which the general fund accounts for just over $6.1 million.
Council also held its non-binding review of the budgets of other government entities in the county, approving them without comment.
Champ told fellow council members Gary Theurer, Mike Rockwell, Cindy Newton and Houchins (Bob Vance arrived later in the meeting and Mike Leonhard was absent), he is uncomfortable with using the rainy day fund to balance the budget. He noted his feeling that the fund is for emergencies rather than everyday expenditures and expressed concern about ending up in the same budgetary position next year.
“As county council people overseeing the county, if your income is not paying your bills, then you have to find a way to make it pay the bills no matter what we have to do, whether it’s popular or whether it’s not popular,” said Champ, who apologized for being absent from the Sept. 16 meeting when council voted to approve the transfer. “Once that rainy day fund is gone, we’re going to sit here and we’re going to make decisions based strictly on being broke. And if we get to that point, shame on us.”

In September, most departments turned in budget proposals asking for a 3-percent raise. Council, which gave 2-percent raises last year, voted instead to freeze wages because of a projected shortfall of $631,000 in the general fund. At that time, they also asked departments to cut 7 to 10 percent from their budgets.
Some department heads made reductions — totaling $190,000 — but others said they could not operate with any less than requested, at which time council made the decision to use the rainy day fund to cover the difference. Though her vote was recorded as a “yea” at the Sept. 16 meeting, Houchins said she did not cast a vote in favor or against the transfer.
Champ was “ticked off” that the county is in its current situation after giving raises last year, saying those were agreed to based on information that showed money was available in the general fund. He questioned whether using the rainy day fund — it was tapped for $400,000 in September 2014 to put Jay County Emergency Medical Service in the black through the end of this year and is being used to pay for a $44,098.11 paramedic position — is smart, saying he is worried about depleting the fund in the span of a couple of years.
Auditor Anna Culy explained that numbers can change quickly and that the raises are not the only factor causing the budget issues. She said the state’s removal of County Adjusted Gross Income Tax from the general fund has been another key factor. The county is paying as many expenses as possible from CAGIT, but the change has made budgeting more difficult.
While there was little disagreement that the budget issues must be addressed, Theurer and Culy said there was no longer time to make such cuts this year. Council needed to approve a budget Wednesday in order to send it to the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance for review or it would have reverted to the 2015 budget, which was higher — $16,082,246 with more than $6.3 million in the general fund.
The budget will now be sent to the DLGF, and council plans to vote on it on second reading at its Oct. 14 meeting.
Culy was frustrated by the discussion coming so late in the process, saying she tried to address the budget with emails as early as July and then at the August meeting but found little receptiveness. She asked for an earlier start and more communication next year in order to make the process go more smoothly.
But she also noted that it could be difficult to find places to cut from the budget without reducing what the county provides.
“If we’re going to keep all of our services, all of them, I don’t know how we’re going to cut, because every office, compared the statistics, is run as short-staffed as possible,” said Culy. “So then you might have to talk about cutting services.”
“I don’t feel like we should cut services when we have $2 million of the taxpayers money in rainy day,” said Newton.
Ellen Coats, the county clerk, also spoke in opposition of staff cuts, saying her office can’t afford to lose personnel. She instead suggested eliminating health insurance — Culy quoted that cost at $6,300 per employee per year — for county employees who can be covered on a spouse’s plan.
She also pointed out that the county isn’t taking advantage of some funding sources, saying she printed a report when she took office in 2009 that showed there was then $3.9 million in uncollected court costs.
“We do not collect our court costs,” she said. “Court costs go into county general.”
Council members expressed interested in looking into both ideas.