Washington County departments struggle to trim budgets as directed

WASHINGTON — Only one Washington County department met the Board of Supervisors’ directive to trim expenses by at least 5% in preliminary budget requests for next fiscal year, but officials say the dust has hardly settled, with more financial adjustments expected in the coming weeks.

Board of Supervisors Chair Richard Young said the directive, while simple on paper, was often tough to accomplish. Some departments have inflexible budgets devoted entirely to payroll and office supplies. Others face expenses beyond their control, like the auditor’s cost to hold elections this year, or the ambulance agency’s expected arrival of a vehicle ordered in 2022, with payment upon delivery.

“People are trying,” Young said. “But you’ve got to think about the auditor’s office, the treasurer’s office, the recorder’s office: most of their budget is salary … then the sheriff’s office had (its) budget hearing, but he came in needing five vehicles.”

The 5% reduction directive was intended as a first step to prepare the county for a state-mandated tax cut known as House File 718, passed by the Iowa Legislature last year. Starting July 1 of 2028, the law requires every city and county in the state to set its general basic levy rate — which finances local governments’ general funds — to $3.50 per $1,000 of assessed valuation.

Washington County’s levy is currently $4.50. While property values fluctuate each year, the change would mean a revenue loss of over $1.5 million for Washington County if it happened today, according to County Treasurer Jeff Garrett.

Budget Director Cyndie Sinn is currently in the process of vetting every item from each agency’s funding proposal, looking for mathematical errors, overestimations, underestimations and whatever else jumps out using a mix of mathematical wizardry and intuition honed by her decades in that role.

Sinn said she hoped some of the bigger checks could be signed by raising other taxes even as the basic levy goes down. Promising alternatives include the debt service levy, or, if voters approve one, a new tax that would exclusively fund emergency medical services.

“Right now, what we’re looking at is over a million dollars that we’re trying to shift the levying from the general service fund to the debt service fund,” Sinn said. “That’s stuff like purchase of the ambulance, some computer equipment … the (radio) tower in Wellman.”

Young, Sinn, and County Auditor Dan Widmer said it was not yet clear exactly how much revenue could be shifted to such other sources. An eventual cut to county services remains not only possible, but likely.

“The goal would be not to, but yeah, to meet the law, that’s a possibility,” Young said. “We’re going to have to look at it.”

The 1.5 million-dollar question, then, is what to cut if the budget’s still not low enough by 2028.

Officials have four years to find an answer. Young said the county would avoid “knee-jerk reactions” and try to keep changes gradual.

The board has not yet discussed any specifics about what to put on the chopping block, according to Young. Once Sinn’s finished her review, departments plan to bring re-evaluated figures before the supervisors once again, hopefully showing lower sums than before.

Ultimately, however, most changes will be decided by department heads, not the Board of Supervisors, who approve only a total allocation to each agency, and don’t have a say in which line items that money gets used on.

The system ensures spending decisions are handled by those most qualified make them, but makes financial disagreements difficult to resolve, if they come up.

“I don’t know what we’d ever do if you said, ‘Dan, you’d better cut your budget by X,’ and I said, ‘I’m not going to do it,’” said Widmer. “If we’d arm wrestle best out of three, or what.”

Washington County Public Health was the only agency to meet the 5% reduction directive in its preliminary budget request. It did so by opting not to fill a recently vacated position, according to officials at a board of health meeting in January.

While Young said he hoped layoffs weren’t in the cards, he said he couldn’t promise they wouldn’t happen, given budget constraints. He expressed similar sentiments about the possibility of cutting down gravel purchases and contributions to local organizations.

“I suppose if it comes down to push and shove, then you have to, but it’s not a good thing,” he said. “The work is still there, somebody else is doing it.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com