Cutting Budgets All About Choices, Herr Says

LAKELAND | Budgeting is about choices and this year the choices have been particularly challenging, County Manager Mike Herr told the Leadership Lakeland Alumni Association on Thursday.

The county's new budgeting process, which was adopted last year, uses teams to prioritize county programs to aid in making budget decisions, Herr said during the organization's annual The State of Our County program held at Cleveland Heights Country Club.

"We used to just cut across the board 5 percent or 10 percent," Herr said, explaining that didn't take into account the relative importance of various programs.

In addition to setting the priorities, Herr said, this year's quest to balance the county's $1.8 billion budget in the wake of tax cuts and declining tax revenues as a result of a poor economy has resulted in some proposals that are now being reconsidered.

One was a proposal to transfer $4 million from the property tax fund set aside for roads to help to balance the general fund budget.

Herr said he took that approach because the general fund property tax rate took a major hit last year and the road fund was unaffected.

Commissioners rejected the idea, and now, he said, he's looking for the money or for additional cuts elsewhere.

Herr said he has already proposed eliminating the 2 percent cost-of-living raise for employees, merging two departments and eliminating one of the deputy county manager positions.

Herr said he has already restored planned cuts in historical and agricultural programs, following a public outcry to keep them, which he said points to the dilemma government leaders face.

"People want their taxes cut, but they don't want services and programs cut," he said. "That's hard to do when you have $27 million less from which to operate."

"I want you to understand something," Herr said. "If you don't want to make cuts and want to fund everything, you have to find a responsible funding plan."

Herr was joined at Thursday's program by Assistant County Manager Lea Ann Thomas, the county's former budget director, and Deputy County Manager Jim Freeman.

Freeman said residents have to remember that a large part of the county budget involves infrastructure ranging from roads to utility plants. He said the challenge is to keep up with growth.

So while the slowdown in homebuilding has reduced impact fees and other revenue, it has an upside, he said.

"We've been able to take a breath and put together a spending plan to build the infrastructure," he said.

Thomas said the county is trying to cut costs through a new fuel-conservation policy and has been able to bring down health-insurance costs for employees. She was asked about the effects of Amendment 5, which would replace funding schools through property taxes with sales taxes and possible some other sources.

Thomas said she has not had a chance to do an in-depth analysis of its impact, should voters approve it.

[ Tom Palmer can be reached at 863-802-7535 or tom.palmer@theledger.com. ]