Supervisors hesitant to raise organization allocations

Washington County Supervisors generally sided in favor of 0% increases to non-departmental contributions in their jurisdiction during a budget work session Friday. While the tentative budget is hardly set in stone, discussions reflect the realities of a county seeking to tighten the belt on its spending.

While no groups are set to receive less funding than in fiscal year 2022, the county is poised to deny requests by many for higher allocations.

The county’s contribution to the Washington Economic Development Group (WEDG) was a major point of debate, taking roughly half the work session to hash out. For now, the county is slated to allocate $23,000 to the group, $7,000 less than WEDG Director Mary Audia had requested.

Supervisor Bob Yoder said the group deserved more.

“If we don’t try to foster growth in this county … we’re going to have a community that’s going to go backwards,” he said. “Everybody in this county, they want police, they want fire, they want ambulance, they want amenities, parks, they want a good community to live in. That all costs money, it’s very expensive, and if you don’t have a tax base, then show me how you’re going to provide that. We need to get a better job base in this community.”

Supervisor Jack Seward Jr. said he valued the organization too, but said it was not the government’s responsibility to subsidize it.

“I see my role more as responding to the needs of the people,” Seward said. “If it’s an economic development thing where it’s good for business, we just ought to get out of the way, and if the businesses think it’ll improve things, then the businesses can contribute to that … (WEDG) does a lot of good things, I don’t doubt that, but instead of spending tax money on that, if you think it’s such a good deal, you give them your money. If I think it’s a really good deal, I’ll give them my money.”

Supervisor Marcus Fedler said he wasn’t convinced WEDG had a strong economic impact to support.

“We’ve lost a lot of jobs in the last 25 years, and WEDG has been here for 25 years,” he said. “Are you going to continue to contribute to something that does basically next to nothing for the benefit of this community other than having a spokesperson … they look for all these ways, these government programs to bring in jobs, and it’s obviously not sustainable.”

Fedler added that he was open to cutting contributions to WEDG in future years.

“We should really be considering eliminating this from our budget,” he said. “(We’d) give Mary some time to reach out to her contributors, people who contribute to that organization, over time and then start cutting it back … this organization, as great as it is and as wonderful as it is, is not something I should be taking money out of peoples’ pockets to fund.”

WEDG Director Mary Audia said the group was still happy with the support, which would represent a $2,000 bump in annual funding.

“We at WEDG are grateful for the investment that the Washington County supervisors make in us and we will continue to utilize that investment to improve the quality of life for those in Washington County while increasing the county revenue,” she said.

Supervisors applied a similar logic in discussions over Main Street Washington’s slice of the pie. The group requested $7,300 in the next fiscal year, but is instead slated to receive $6,834, the same amount it was given last budget season.

“I would say cut it with the understanding that in five years we will phase it out, just like I’ve said on every other item on this list that we can cut,” Fedler said. “Main Street is a semiprivate organization … I like Sarah, just like I like Mary Audia, I like all these guys. They’re doing important work, a lot of times without thanks. I still do not think that it’s something that the county government should fund.”

Main Street Washington Director Sarah Grunewaldt said the requested increase was minor, meant to cover cost of living changes.

“If they’re holding tight at the fiscal 2022 level, that doesn’t surprise me and it doesn’t upset me,” she said. “We’re thankful that the county contributes at all, we’re probably one of the only non-countywide organization that receives funding from the county to support our mission, which ultimately helps them in the long run.”

Still, Grunewaldt said rolling contributions back would be a mistake.

“They’re receiving far more benefit from us being present and helping bring in grant dollars and helping keep businesses in store fronts and residences in upper story apartments than they would if we weren’t here,” she said. “We’re the ones that have done a lot of carrot incentives to lessen the burden on county governments, lessen the burden on city government. To have them think that their investment … in our organization is not valuable is ridiculous.”

Another county group staring down a steady budget despite asking for increases is the county library association. The group had requested $168,000, but supervisors plan to continue their annual $165,000 allocation, as they have for the last several years.

“The state law says that we have to provide library services for people in the unincorporated part of the county,” Supervisor Jack Seward Jr. said. “State law says we only have to provide X amount of money, and we’re way over that … personally I’d love to see it cut by 5%, but I can leave it the way it is.”

Supervisor Stan Stoops pitched a plan to re-evaluate the formula used to determine the county’s budget obligations, possibly before finalizing the budget for next fiscal year.

“Leave it the way it is at $165,000, no increases, subject to change,” he said. “We’ve got to look at this stuff, we’ve got to scrutinize this stuff.”

Library Association Treasurer and Kalona Public Library Director Trevor Sherping said keeping the status quo wouldn’t have immediate effects, but would make keeping up in the future an uphill battle.

“I’ve heard a lot from the League of Cities and things like that, with inflation at 7%, we’re expecting a lot of our expenses to be more than we’re currently budgeting for (in) six months to a year,” he said. “We’re trying to make sure the libraries are in a good fiscal place when we get to next year.”

Sherping said further cuts would require county libraries to make a lot of tough choices.

“Probably the first thing that we would have to look at would be a programming budget,” he said. “That would probably be the first place that we’d have to start just because we’re not locked into contracts … But if they made a huge decrease, it would start to impact some of the materials that our patrons use now. In my library, digital editions, e-books, are all paid for by the county.”

Amid the modest shortfalls, some groups seem likely to get what they asked for. County contributions to the East Central Iowa Housing Trust Fund are set to climb from $3,200 to nearly $4,000 after the organization reported an over $100,000 return on investment for the county last year.

"If they didn’t do it, we didn’t contract with them to do it, then we’d have to figure it out on our own and I think that’s not a good thing,“ Seward said. ”We’re doing good with East Central Iowa Housing Trust Fund.“

A similar logic applies to the PAWS & More Animal Shelter, which may see a contribution jump from just over $17,000 to as high as $34,400 after a substantial drop in the 2021-22 fiscal year.

“If we don’t fund the animal shelter, then we’re going to have to start another government department by hiring a dogcatcher, we’re going to have to build our own animal shelter,” Board Chair Richard Young said. “I’m going to tell you, that’s going to cost a lot more than $34,000.”

The board expects to keep contributions for other organizations the same as last year, with groups like Minibus, 4-H, the Fairgrounds and the English River Watershed drawing less controversy than others.

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com