Share

Tweet

WEST BRANCH — Ogemaw County commissioners are putting the finishing touches on the county’s 2010-11 budget, which will be around $300,000 less than this year’s budget, according to commissioner and budget and finance chair Beverly Scott.

“A lot of (county) departments have budgets that are smaller than they had before,” Scott said. She said cuts have been made to many departments in office supplies and travel, among other things.

“We’ve cut things were you can’t cut people as easily,” Scott said.

She added that as of right now, the new budget does not require the county to lay off any employees.

“Not at this point,” Scott said, adding that there still could layoffs in the near future.

“It’s hard to know right now,” Scott said.

Scott said other actions have been taken within some departments with staffing. A few county employees will be retiring and then coming back to work for the county at lower wages. Also, a part-time position at the Michigan State University Extension has been cut. Scott said that person currently works part time at MSUE and part time at Veterans Affairs. That person will just be working the part time position at Veterans Affairs in the future.

The county is also looking at taking furlough days between Christmas and New Years, and that the courts are looking into whether or not they could do that.

But Scott said work on the budget is not quite completed.

“There are a couple of areas we are still working on,” Scott said, although she declined to say which areas those were at this time.

Scott said the current proposed budget has been balanced by using around $78,000 from the county’s fund balance. Scott said the fund balance is money left over in the budget from previous years. She said the county’s current fund balance is about $40,000, but she also knows that there will be money left over from this year’s budget as well.

However, Scott said she would still like to keep the amount used from fund balance to balance this year’s budget at less than $40,000.

“We don’t want to use more than what’s in there,” she said. “(Money left over from this year’s budget) should stay in fund balance for the following year.”

Scott said the lower budget this year is a result of a decrease in overall taxable value of the county. The county already had to find more than $250,000 in this year’s budget to account for losses this year. Some of that money came from the fund balance as well, and Scott said the county should learn from that, and that counties that didn’t have that money set aside really struggled as a result this year.

And Scott said that despite the fact that there are a significant number of cuts to this year’s budget, she doesn’t feel that it much of it will be noticed by county residents.

“I don’t think a lot will be noticeable,” Scott said. “No services are being cut. Services will continue, and everyone is just doing a little more.”

Scott said one thing people may notice is that the county building will be closing earlier. She said the county is asking any groups or organizations that use the building to be out by 9 p.m., as the maintenance crew will be coming in earlier. Regular business hours will not change, however.

Scott said the county has worked with department heads to make cuts where it can, and she’s grateful for the help they’ve given.

“We really appreciate the department heads and people working with us, and understanding that we’re not out to get anyone,” Scott said.

The county will hold a public hearing on the budget at 8:45 a.m., prior to its 9 a.m. regular meeting Sept. 9. The budget must be approved before Oct. 1. Scott said the county always brings the budget to its first meeting in September, that way, if any changes need to be made, it can be approved at the second meeting.

Scott said she anticipates the budget will be approved Sept. 9.

“I think so, if everything goes OK at the public hearing, if there’s not any questions we can’t answer,” Scott said.