Posted: 9/14/04
By Barbara Brown
The Chisago County board must decide tonight where it will set its proposed budget for 2005.
The board currently could approve a 28 percent increase over the 2004 budget which includes the total amounts of each departmentís budget requests.
Presenting a preliminary budget proposal at 28 percent more than last year would allow the board to continue to discuss the budget plans for 2005 and give them the opportunity to decrease the proposal before the December deadline when the budget and levy request must be sent to the state.
During a special work session held Sept. 7, Chisago County board members gave their opinions on two main budget proposals presented from county administrator John Moosey, county treasurer Lee Olson and county auditor Dennis Freed.
The board talked about the possibility of raising the countyís budget for next year by 15 percent, but the board could approve a 28 percent budget increase.
Were there to be only slight changes in the budget from last yearís, the increase would be about 10 percent.
The only changes over the 2004 budget in the 10 percent increase proposal are wage increases for county employees and items that were approved during the fiscal year by the county board to be paid for in 2005, Freed said.
In another proposal, the board saw numbers comparing the 10 percent budget to a 15 percent increase budget over the 2004 budget.
However, the county levy would increase only by $1,026,773 in the 15 percent option over the 10 percent option.
The total county levy in the 10 percent option would be $21,905,770 and the amount for the 15 percent budget is $22,932,543.
That amount would be divided by the countyís tax capacity to determine the tax rate which would then be applied to each homeownerís property valuation.
The countyís tax capacity grew by 18.5 percent over 2004 to more than $6 million.
Items that most impacted the budget process for this year included approval of more than $1 million to be allocated to the Chisago County Sheriffís Office to plan for a new jail or justice center, taking the jailís budget line from $2.4 million in 2004 to $3.5 million proposed for 2005.
The county set a hiring freeze for 2004 and must decide if that freeze will continue in 2005.
Should the board determine that the hiring freeze on new positions would remain, the county would have to cut about $825,000 from the 10 percent option and $400,000 from the 15 percent option. In the 15 percent option, the money would come out of additional tax revenues.
Less tax revenues in the 10 percent option would mean that the county could pay some of the difference through taxes, but other services also may have to be cut to make up the difference.
Each of the county commissioners had opinions on where to set the budget.
ìThere are a lot of people in my district who are struggling,î said Commissioner Mike Robinson. ìI donít see how some of them can afford this. The price of milk is going up, the price of gas is going up. These people are getting hit from all sides.î
Commissioner Ben Montzka said that since the countyís tax capacity increased over 2004 by 18 percent and the board was presented with a 15 percent budget increase, the taxes would go down about 3 percent.
That would be the case if all the growth in the tax capacity for Chisago County came from new construction alone and not from increased valuation on established properties, Freed said.
Commissioner Rick Olseen said he would support preliminarily setting the budget increase at 15 percent. ìI donít see how we can save $825,000 doing it $10,000 at a time,î he said, referring to the amount the county would have to cut from different departmentís line items if it set the budget at 10 percent over 2004ís.
ìThere are constituents in each one of our districts that canít afford this increase no matter how glossy it seems,î said Commissioner Lora Walker. ìAt some point people are making choices; do you buy your medicine, do you feed your children or do you pay your taxes.î
Commissioner Bob Gustafson said the board needed to at least keep in a raise for county employees due to the increased strain from workloads because of the countyís hiring freeze.
ìWe spent $6.7 million last year that we really didnít need to spend. We make some very poor decisions on this board,î Gustafson said.
ìI think itís totally unfair that we continually ask our employees to work double time [without extra pay],î he said. ìI think weíre going to lose some good people if that becomes a habit with us.î
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