July 9, 2008

Frustration

While the 2009 budget requests from county government departments continued to flow relatively smoothly, one thing was evident at Tuesday evening’s Wells County Council meeting.

The much acclaimed (by state representatives anyway) property tax laws are not proving satisfactory.

The frustration became vocal when council members Peter Cole, Karolyna Farling, Jim Van Winkle, Todd Mahnensmith, LeRoy Cramer, Michael Kracium and Jim Oswalt discussed the Treasurer’s budget with County Treasurer Rinda Vaughn, and Kracium asked regarding the latest situation with property tax bills. Prior to the start of the meeting, council members had been issued with a letter from County Auditor Laura Brubaker outlining the current position, and effectively advising that completion of the process was some considerable way off yet.

While the letter advised that the Governor is releasing additional funds to help provide tax funds for counties that have not yet been able to bill, the frustration with a process that seems to have no end, and rules and procedures that state officials don’t appear to be clear on themselves, and are therefore unable to provide clear instructions to county officials, is certainly very clear.

At this point, the latest “hopeful date” appears to be Nov. 10, 2008 - some six months after the supposed deadline of May 10.

Vaughn advised that even at conferences that county officials are going to, they are being advised that the May 10 deadline for tax billing will not be achieved for some years yet.

Taxpayers on the other hand, will only have 15 days to pay their bills, when they are eventually sent out, with late payers being charged interest.

Given that taxpayers probably have a rough idea of what is due, and should therefore be ready to pay at the appointed time, there was confidence that there would not be problems collecting the money when it was eventually requested.

But it was noted that the endless delays do not make it easier for local residents to manage their financial affairs, and that state officials seem to be able to do what they like when they like, but county officials and ordinary citizens do not have that luxury.

Vaughn noted that many taxpayers are in fact paying some or all of their expected taxes in advance, which is helping to make funds available to the county.

Council members were clear that their frustration was not with local county officials, who are doing their best, often with little real help from their state counterparts, who themselves do not always have the information on hand to pass on.

Rules and procedures that appear to be continuing to change are just imposing further delays as the process continues, making it increasingly difficult to ensure adequate funding for local organizations. Delays with changing computer software to meet the new requirements are not helping the companies contracted to assist the various government agencies meet their obligations, and this is another blockage in the road.

Council members themselves are in a similar situation, trying to establish a county budget for the coming year armed only with the hope that they will have a similar amount of money available to last time.

Cole himself summed up the situation with the words “Its the blind leading the blind”.

Perhaps it is just as well then, that there has been little controversy resulting from the budgets submitted so far by the various government departments.

Storm and Water, Probation, Health, Treasurer, Coroner, Veteran’s office, Maplewood Home and Emergency Management offices all made their presentations on Tuesday evening.

Aside from the Emergency Management office, which presented a very different budget this year, all offices put forward very similar requests to those granted last year, with three per cent salary increases for staff being the main consistent difference.

For new EMA Director Sherry Johnson, this was her first time in the hot seat before council. Her request to upgrade her position to a full time one, and also to increase the current, but vacant, clerical assistant position into an Assistant Director certainly made council members balk.

While there has been previous discussion regarding making the EMA Director position a full time one, this has always been a “maybe at some time in the future” proposal.

Council members advised Johnson that they would like to see more discussion between the EMA Board of Directors and the County Commissioners on this request, with job descriptions and other relevant detail supporting the request drawn up.

Chief Probation Officer Greg Werich updated council members on upcoming changes to juvenile law. Again, the goalposts aren’t yet in their final position, and although the new laws are supposed to take effect from Jan. 1, 2009, specific details have not yet been passed on to judges and other relevant parties.

The basic thrust however appears to indicate that counties will be responsible for juveniles placed in secure detention while the state will fund most other placements. There are several exceptions to this however, that judges will need to be very aware of when passing sentences.

Werich advised that he is continuing to work with county judges to make sure the county is spared as much financial burden as possible.

In addition to budget discussion, council members also addressed regular monthly business at this meeting.

Regular monthly reports were received from the Wells County Department of Child Services, the Sheriff’s Department and the jail.

Oswalt noted that in June 2008, the Sheriff’s Department performed 598 house watches as opposed to only 211 in 2007. These are generally people going on holiday, who have requested law enforcement to regularly check their property during their absence.

Sheriff Frantz was again required to ask for additional appropriations for overtime for staff, most of which is due to three deputies being involved with the National Guard, who are called up periodically for service, requiring a replacement for their position while they are absent.

John Whicker and Dawn Frauhiger also discussed Bi County Services operations with council members, and requested $39,312 (the same amount as last year) be included in the county budget to fund their programs.

Frauhiger had previously made this request to the Wells County Commissioners at their June 16, 2008, meeting.

The budget hearings will continue Thursday, July 10, commencing at 6 p.m. in the Carnegie Annex on W. Washington Street.

frank@news-banner.com

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