Which county program is more important: sex offender treatment for adults or search and rescue teams? Jail operations or elections and voter registration? These are the questions that county administrators asked in taking their first step toward drafting the county’s 2008-09 budget.
The Lane County Board of Commissioners, budget officials and various county departments heads met Wednesday morning to prioritize the 47 services that receive general fund money. The step was in preparation for the possible loss of $20 million to the general fund.
The county’s property tax service, which is a federally and state-mandated program, was ranked as the top priority, followed by elections and voter registration, adult criminal prosecution and child support prosecution.
Among the programs at the bottom of the list were methadone treatment (35th), federal lobbying (38th) and public access television (39th).
Lane County receives approximately $47 million from the federal government to make up for lost timber revenue – $20 million goes to the general fund, $20 million funds county roads and $7 million is directed to schools.
Now the renewal of that money is in jeopardy, and county officials are preparing for the worst.
Lane County faced a very similar situation last year when officials put approximately 250 county jobs and numerous services on the chopping block, only to be saved by a one-year reprieve in federal funds.
The same fate is bubbling close to the surface again, and county commissioners began the budget process by prioritizing which county services are essential and which are expendable.
“There’s a lot of life experience in this group already,” Commissioner Pete Sorenson said during the meeting.
The list of services contain programs from the Sheriff’s Office, the District Attorney’s Office, Health and Human Services and Youth Services among others.
The 47-item list was broken down into seven levels of importance with group one being the highest priority, group two the second highest and so on down the line. The level of importance will determine which programs are kept intact and which are more likely to be cut or reduced, should federal funding not be renewed.
“There’s more to it than meets the eye,” Commissioner Bill Dwyer said.
Programs are prioritized in order of importance, but some audience members expressed concern over the rankings given.
The county’s Deputy District Attorney Alex Gardner questioned how law services can be ranked above the person to who runs them.
Jail Operations and Field Law Enforcement are ranked 12 and 13 respectively, while the sheriff, who runs these programs, is ranked 20.
The budget process is in its preliminary stage, and the next step is to put the price of running each service alongside its ranking. Once that step has been taken, commissioners may re-prioritize the list because costs should play a role in what services can fit into the skinny budget.
County budget officials are planning to put the programs’ costs together with the rankings by the end of the week so commissioners can begin the re-evaluation of services. The next budget meeting is tentatively scheduled for Feb. 5 and/or Feb. 6.
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