Travis County Commssioners Court
August 7, 2003
FY ‘04 Budget Hearings
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Opening Comments
You were to receive a presentation of the preliminary budget on Tuesday. Due to the press of other business that was deferred to today, so I have a short -- power point presentation tgi as a summary of what is in the preliminary budget. I will try to run through it as quickly as I can. Then there's a little bit of home work about what up in front of you about the process and the schedule and then we will pass it on to -- for genal discussion of the main topic today. To turn to the summary of whats in the preliminary budget, this is not "the budget." It is a budget. It is the planning and budget offices best recommendation for a sound and financial plan next year and based on the principles, instructions and guidelines adopted by the court. The county is in reasonably good financial shape. We face challenges but we do not have a fiscal crisis mpared to other. Our health is the preparations to increase the reserves and fund balances in prior years. There's been careful adherence to adopted guidelines that have been in effect for the last five or six years. We have avoided the use of one-time revenue for costs, historically careful spending and a low reliance on fluctuating income. But we do face a drop in the property tax base. First drop in a decade, from 62.4 billion to 60.2 billion. The biggest driver of that is a decrease of about 10%of the value in commercial properties. This is a simple chart but I would like to point something out to you that is important so that you know what our mindset was when we were building this budget based on the instructions provided by the court. This is a chart that shows the net taxable value of all track property from 1987 to 2004. And you will notice in '87 there was a drop that started and then steep increases all the way through 2003, you can see the decrease in 2004, but what I want to point out to you is the thought that in late '80's, there was a serious economic problem, there was. But notice that we continued the drop until 1993. That there is a lag in the drop in property value compared to economic recovery. This is not a secret. But it was in the back of our minds continuously when we were putting this budget together because we kept our ey on '05. If I could give you -- there will be a couple of messages that I want to leave with you. One is keep '05 in mind as you build this budget and as you take this budget but one that was built did I the departments in the planning and budget office and in the next month and a half or two make it your own. County f.t.e. Tracks very closely to county population. Over the last 10 years, there have been increases in county f.t.e. Approximately 41%. That's a lot of -- a lot of people. There's also been a 39% increase in the county population. If you look at this chart, and the parameters on both the left and the right are retive to one another, the same, you see that county population, which is the line, tracks very, very closely. As a percentage of increase to -- to the county f.t.e., Which are the bars. It's about a little over 3% a year annually. This would be the first year, at least in the preliminary budget that you will see an actual net decrease in f.t.e. Total. Predominant themes of this budget are restraint, caution, vigilance, using existing resources to meet new needs. In the absence of new funding for anything but minimal increases or contractual or statutory obligations. A quick review of the numbers. The total 449 million in 2003 to 460,000,000.7 in '04, that's a 2.5% increase. General fund, the primary platform from 303.7, to 313.8 million. Debt service fund went down, other funds and transfers had an increase. One of the major themes is budget reductions. There's 6.9 million worth of budget reductions 2.4 million decrease in sheriff's corrections due to the drop in inmates. There was an assumption that the average inmates would be 2,175, our averages were much higher in '02. There are 43 positions removed from the sheriff's office. 8 were removed mid year this year, plus 31 corrections officers and four food service officers, along with represented operating expenses. All of those reductions can be achieved through attrition, no layoffs. The jail overowding task force has been extraordinarily successful in reducing inmate counts. Every individual, official and staff member involved in atuld be very proud and I kno they are of their efforts. Other reductions including eliminating rental expenses of about $570,000, submitting budgets below targets. Ck in may the departments provided additional $436,000 worth of reductions. You reorganized the justice and public safety operation within the county saving $274,000. There are vacant positions held open for $190,000 savings with an expectation that those positions would be -- would be returned in '05. There are other savings in 15 other departments that are outlined in your materials, totaling 714,000. We also reduced 2.3 million worth of reserves, 1 million-3 out of the allocated reserve and the million dollars out of the capital acquisition resources, the cash account of general fund for capital. We also are reducing or reallocating 45 underutilized vehicles, which was a part of the discussion that's occurred much of the year on those vehicles. There's a net decrease in f.t.e. We have a reduction of 50.5 f.t.e. That are reduced that are offset by 37.25 f.t.e. That are added. The nets is a little over 13 f.t.e. Decrease. 22 of those additional positions have new revenue associated with them. 14 f.t.e. Were established either through a reallocation of existing resources or temporary positions made permanent or they were related to a building acquisition. There are other -- however it's not all decreases, we also have increases. You know about the combined transportation emergency communns center and the radio system. That's almost a million four, that was actually identified as an expectation that would occur in '04. We have salary saving adjustments of 1,365,000, related to decrease in vacancy rate, salary savings are not going to be met in our opinion along with an increased utilization for [indiscernible] employee that you approved this year. Additional indigent attorney's fees of a million-one. It is our opinion that this will finally get it right budgeted. That it's not short budgeting, but it's proper budgeting because we believe that that's going to be spent in '04 given the dynamics that have occurred so far the various court operations of the there's health and human services obligations, slightly over a million dollars. You know that there is a need to right-size the health and human services budget this year to the tune of about a million dollars and it's our judgment unless there was programmatic changes there's going to be a need for additional million dollars next year. Balcones canyon land preservation fund, you are very familiar with that program which has been with us seven or eight years. There's no secret that building is booming this that area, the money that's increased property tax revenue goes into the balcones canyonland preserves for the acquisition of additional land and opening of new buildings that are outlined in your materials that is totaling a little over $600,000. We have a centralized fines and fees collection expenditure of $330,000. There is an offset revenue that we discussed on Tuesday last about why and I'm sure you will want to discuss that in further detail as we go through. There's postage and off-site storage needs of 260,000 and e.m.s. Base contract increases with the city, that's primarily -- that's all contractually obligated primarily related to the salary increases that the city workers will be receiving, replacing lost visiting judge days. The state decided to decrease the number of visiting judge days and if we left that alone, we were worried that there would be offsetting increase in inmate counts so we wanted to in essence make the judges whole that in order to maintain the same number of visiting judges that they had in '03 we have to replace what the state reduced.
>> we have guidance from the state the final decision --
>> no, we do not have --
>> based on the state appropriation bill, the 18 days, judge. There's some expectation that that number could be actually less. I've heard it could be 13. P.b.o. Recommended in the budget that we revise our recommendation to make sure that each judge would receive a total of 35 days. It's possible we may need to change our recommendation by about 34,000.
>> [inaudible - no mic] do we think that we will get a final decision say by mid September for next year?
>> he has not made it clear as to whether he's going to allocate [inaudible - no mic]
>> if the audience is talking, you need to come to the
>> wh n folksal they need to come to an empty chair. We will make one available.
>> is this the time to ask that question, or wait until you finish.
>> your call.
>> doesn't matter? Budget. We think that even if the call is worst case scenario, it would be an additional 3, 33,000.
>> a little bit less than 34,000 if it's 13 days. Right now have 118 days.
>> that's right. The secondary issue that judge dietz made us aware of is whether we even legally if we wanted to could replace those dollars. Have we gotten a signoff that yes, we can do it, if indeed it is legal?
>> according to judge schrab the presiding judge of the third judicial region. He doesn't seem a prlem with doing it as a contractual type of situation. However, I have asked the county attorney's office to give us an opinion about that.
>> judge, if this -- this would be one of those things, I think we should start a separate running tab of things that the state of Texas has paid for tt are being shifted to county government to fund out of property taxes. Because I think this is information that when we get to a next session of the legislature, we will be -- woul be informative about how their decisions have impacted the local property tax rate.
>> moving along.
>> we also have an increase in unemployment and property insured costs totaling 153,000. There are other increases that are detailed, but they are smaller than these numbers represent. We also have established for this year more than in the past special departmental operating reserves. And each one who various reasons why -- has various reasons why. Departmentally oriented reserves, new park staffs, $533,000, just to clarify, the actual total cost for all of the parks is a million and a half. A half a million of capital and about a million, I'm rounding, of additional staff. Of the million, we expected and believed that $465,000 of additional revenue derived from new park fees would be forthcoming, although that was the proposal it may be more, it may be less. What we did was we added $533,000 and th was based on prior actions of the court. In essence we took the staffing pattern that the court approved in a prior year and just overlaid it on top of the reest. You may remember in prior year the planning and budget office actually recommended fewer staff. And the park staff said, no, we think there needs to be more staff, that court adopted that, so we decided though the to confront the court agai with the similar situation but just to reflect the court's prior approval of the parks staff. You offensely may wish to address that -- obviously may wish to address that year because of the dollars involved and other issues that are facing you.
>> it's possible to do that with new information and with updated information.
>> there's quite a bit of updated information because would you have had more experience in -- you've had more experience in running those. Those were big old metro parks, you now have a much better understanding of what it takes to do this. We have quhiewn tee supervisions and corrections reserved, $208,000, that has already actually been adopted for that computer software contract. The software for the facts system interfaces, this deals with a recoized need that may or may not be 200,000. It may be zero, it may be 600,000, that deals with the implementation of the new facts system. A need to have these data bases be able to talk to one another that are related to the facts system, so this is literally a plug figure in the departmental reserve, we think that it's safest to at least have some number of table as we go through the year, there are funds available for insurancing that the facts system has appropriate hooks and eyes with other data bases.
>> [inaudible - no mic]
>> as well as the facts system itself, when it comes to some type of completion, I heard you say, $200,000, as we get closer to that, it just appears that we should have some idea on when --
>> y.
>> we ought to have some -- right now we need to be close to how much money we have got to deal with. I hear what you are saying. As we go through this budget process of '04 of course the facts system is pretty much coming to some type of completion. It appears we need to have a firmer grasp on that. With this -- even with this $200,000 amount.
>> correct.
>> every time, any organization goes through a major computer implementation, each week, each month reveals additional information. One problems that you thought were going to occur that have been resolved that were not as bad as you thought and the opposite. Oh, my gosh, we need to do. If we want to not ignore the fact that we probably are going to need something on the table in reserve at the departmental level so you are not caught short.
>> yeah.
>> question on the 208. This is the general fund.
>> yes. Yes.
>> so the coributions we discussed in work session were -- they were not for this 208?
>> the contributions.
>> weiscussed an item where cscd basically committed I thought it was $58,000, harlow had a conibution, was that '03 and not this --
>> I think it was '03 from harlow.
>> mine is exactly the same, I think. It was part of the report that we brought in, we discussed funding.
>> yeah.
>> aybe I'm thinking of another 208, but it was cscd, and ijs. I will pull my backup and look at it.
>> if that's the too mu.hen this is
>> yeah.
>> but right now you have it in the preliminary budget.
>> that's correct.
>> in this amount
>> in this amount. That was in there based on may, June, July data. August and --
>> there's been further discussion, so -- additional t.n.r. Inspector, due tohe new legislation, 1445, which you are very well aware of, that's 150,000 plug figure at the departmental level for additional inspectors. Clearly that will need to get resolved by the time the budget process is over. Then we have visiting judgefor the jail impact courtroom. This is also related to visiting judge issue that we just discussed, but this is from the jail impact courtroom and we wanted to at least hold harmless and make sure that that courtroom continued in its present form. Compensation and benefits, you have dealt with at some considerable length. You know about the employee health benefits costing 4.5 million more in the general fund plus a million collars in other funds. There's about a million two of additional contingent reserve recommended to come from the risk management fund. The final need will need to be determined after open enrollment. Open enrollment will be completed very shortly. Depending upon the behavior of about 4,000 people, that number may go up or down significantly. The employee health insurance fund would go from 22.2 million in '03 to 29.4 million in '04 2004. There's no compensation funds for the rank and file, elected officials or peace officers. The existing retirement system benefits will be costing $359,000 more t hold harmless the existing level of benefits for all employees. We have reserves; you know out the unallocated reserve at 11%, it's been that way for 8 years now. 7 years. And the -- the emergency reserve, which was plugged at the same amount as it was in 2003 of a little under $2.3 million, allocated reserve was a million three lower than in '03 but at the same level as in '02. We recessed in '03 because of the jail overcrowding crisis, you wanted to be protected, clearly the work of the jail overcrowding task force was substantial and allows you to reduce that at least to two million.
>> do know how much of the emergency reserve we spent this year?
>> none.
>> how much of the allocated reserve.
>> am I wrong? I just heard a growl.
>> we used it for hhs. We used aotal of $750,000, it's been transferred out of there. I don't know the balance though. We can get that.
>> we spent $750,000.
>> yes, sir.
>> how much of the aloe indicated reserve did we spend, about? We will answer that in about 10 minutes.
>> that's soon enough.
>> I see somebody getting that data.
>> we have a running tab.
>> let me ask you, going back on the compensation increases for rank and file, so forth, what is the difference between compensation increase and a career ladder increase whenever you see thatn all of those budget -- I mean, is a career ladder, is that a -- is that a raise?
>> yes.
>> or was I reading all of that wrong?
>> a career ladder is a subset of a compensation increase. There's the universe of -- of changes called compensation increases. That is bureaucratic talk for raise. There's a bunch of dierent wa @o get a raise. One is elected officials. And you go through that ocess. One is pops, that's very, formulaic. More of a military approach. Rank and file and there's career ladder. Each of those have different rules and traditions and approaches.
>> okay.
>> did you budget anything for career ladder?
>> no.
>> I have a question on that.
>> and that's -- there are requests and there are individuals that wish to talk to but the importance of career ladders as I'm sure there are individuals that wish to talk to you about other compensation matters, if only -- not only for '04 but also for '05.
>> and there's more than one way to get there related to, say, career ladders and other kinds of promotions, that is tha as higher paid people leave a department, there then are dollars that are in a pot that if you choose to say, underfill or fill something at a level l ii, whatever, it creates permanent dollars that can go for things like a promotion of somebody going from one grade to another or somebody getting a certification and doing it. So there are many ways that people can accomplish their goals by giving them the flexibity to use the dollars, even if those dollars do not change one penny.
>> that's correct. My answer no was extra money. Not use of existing money. We talked about reserves, proposed tax rate, it's -- it's 2.98 cents increase in the tax rate preliminary budget from 4660 to 4958 per $100 of value. This equals exactly the effective tax rate consistent with adopted guidelines. That is not true, it is slightly less than the effective tax rate. It equaled exactly at the time the preliminary budget bass filed. A few days we got certified tax roll, the effective tax rate effectively now is 4964. And so we are just a gnat's eye lash below the effective tax rate. We have home values that at the time preliminary budget was adopted was filed being predicted to be increasing from 189,796 to 191,388 for all homesteads. Actually now with the certified tax role the value is slightly less than 191388. Which will then help on the next bullet which is that the average of all homes under this proposal would see a $52 per year increase going from $707 to $759. You see your little house. This shows the total taxes on an average house in -- homestead in Travis County this year, this is this year's dollars, using this year's tax rates, total taxes are 4,461 on aome instead of 189,796. The stay with us of Austin is 62% of that, Travis County is 16% of that, if the city's tax rate is the same for county's, how come they aren't the same, the reason is because of the 20% homestead. Aisd is clearly the largest driver, that's no secret, 2790 or 62% of the tax bill is from aisd and then a.c.c. Is about 2%. This ignores any separate esd or mudd or any other special taxation district that might exist because they are all different. This is the basic four major local governments in the neighborhood. And you can interpret this in any number of ways but we thought it would be helpful to share that. Moving to capital. [one moment please for change in captioners]
>> so what we did was we said let us figure out what the voter authorized bond debt service would be, and then look at how much capacity there is left. And that capacity is $5.3 million. So to the degree that that $5.3 million is increased, you'll have an increase in bt service in 2005. To the extent that it's decreased or shifted around and you don't fund something, then you create additional capacity. That's basically how this was sized.
>> the other thing is in years' past we've had a little bit of artificial of what's been going on there because when you're having to issue $90 million for one road project, you don't do that every single year, so that was kind of an am normal -- abnormal -- christian likes to say the egg running through the snake. And we've also under the five-year co's had a quite a few things related to the election system. But we're not going ta again. And with the costs related to the new combined communications center planned for over four years, but that is add an end and now that's shifting over to o and m and going out.
>> if we thought that it was irresponsible for us to recommend something different than thismount, we would probably do so, but alert you that that means an increase in debt service. We use the debt service as a cap and in essence the control mechanism to try to stay within 5-point approximate. And we think we can and we think you can as well. 5.3. You may choose not to, but we think you can. Because you're going to hear about capital projects that are not within the preliminary budget. And those may be compelling in your examine, in which case you either shift projects around or add to the co. Speaking of car, totaling $5.5 million, this is a list of the various eliminates of cars, the larger -- we've got variet of large jail projects. The replacement of pc's, notebooks and printrs for a little over 600,000. There are other technology upgrades for a little over 600,000. The forensics addition is 261,000, that is driven by additional fees from the medical examiner. Retiities projects of 121,000. There's a raft of other equipment and projects in other departments of 574,000 that is all detailed out in your preliminary budget details. The car reserve is 535. Plus the parks equipment, that's that capital part of the parks, so you have a million on the operating side and half a million on the capital side. And then this is that 200,000-dollar reserve for facts interface that we believe was appropriate to have it as a special reserve within car.
>> the annual budget about a 10% car reserve?
>> we've been at 500,000 plus or minus 10 or 20 for the last four or five years, yes.
>> reserve?
>> reserve.
>> how much of the car reserve do we use typically?
>> that will be answered in the -- when deanna comes back.
>> this would be an abnormal example because we just used, I believe, approximately 200,000 for a facilities management project that we were going to do this year ibstead of next year. I think that was the dro project. So when she comes in, we'll let you know.
>> we never gotten, to my knowledg at least in the last four or five years, we've never got tone a point where we've gotten through the year and it's been oops, we don't have enough money in the car reserve.
>> you end up with a double -- (indiscernible).
>> it's all in the eyes of the be holder. You have a reserve for capital projects and a reserve for the operator. The operating reserve is for the allocated reserve and the capital reserve is on the -- you can bien those we jt think there's a certain elegance and simplicity --
>> you raised my point.
>> that's not the first time.
>> my point was that on the jail facility projects, if we were to do it for one of them, we would have a reserve right there.
>> yes.
>> we also had that reserve backed up by a capital acquisitions reser.
>> yes.
>> and the question I'm about to ask that ian get the answer to next week is how important I the 10 percent car reserve? Now, how often we use a certainly percentage of it to me is important when I ask the other question.
>> and may I put one more twist to that?important is a 10o 20 percent contingency on the projects themselves?
>> you're right, we are building on top of reserves because you have a contingency in a project that might cost 700,000 and then we have the other reserve pack-backing it up. So they're mirror images of each other.
>> for the last two or three years we have been careful too budget reserve for the project.
>> yes.
>> they are coming in under more than over. That's good news.
>> I understand. If you don't have it, you don't spend it. That's the other side of it.
>> I didn't say that, but I thought it.
>> i'll say it for you.
>> it can go both ways because it's one of those things that you can still have the greatest number and then when you have a bonus you have to pay for labor because the market has shifted and we've been very blessed that we've also got unbelievable corch tition for projects, and that's helped up. Competition. It can also swing the other way.
>> there is no question over the years we have ensured that you have degrees of flexibility to do what you believe is necessary. Moving along, road and bridge fund. We've got 6.2 million dollars' worth of capital in the road and bridge fund. Half of it is through replacent of vehicles and large pieces of equipment. Hot mix overlay. You've talked about for many years of a million five and then the road repairs is a half a mall dollars. There's a little over $770,000 of traffic signals, 415 of those thousand of those that are for new traffic signals. 354,000 of those are for upgrades. $100,000 for sidewalks. And 333,000 for storm water management equipment. In addition to that there's an allocated reserve to a little over million and a half with 400,000 of that dedicated to health and retirement increases. We talked a little bit about the 5.3 million dollars' worth of certificate of obligation. Those are composed of a million six from technology upgrades. The radios for the 911 rdmt project of a 1.3 million, that's the last contribution from debt to that very large project totaling over $20 million over four years. You've got ff and a and cabling of new buildings of just under a million dollars, replacement of non-patrol vehicles and new vehicles of a little under a million dollars. The sheriff's office jail projects of 286,000, replacing the roof of one of our buildings, 169, and issuance of bonds. Voter approved bonds, there are two propositions that were adopted by the voters, local roads, drainage, bridge and pedestrian access, tnr believes that it was to continue moving towards executing those bond projects to the tune of 7.8 million dollars and then it a continuation of proposition 2, which is the county parks project, slightly over four million dollars. Each of you have a black book, the departmental budget write-ups. Those contain a review of all the base budgets plus over 400 separate budget issues, whh are made up of proposals and increased reductions. All of those departments have those. We send them in draft form don'ts, talk about them form th departments. Modify them or not in accordance with the various judgments and new facts that come to the table and they are produced for your review and reading pleasure. They were developed through you discussions in June d July and they basically are the foundation for the departmental budget recommendations. They are what is in those black books really is the keys to the kingdom and that's where the detail is. The devils and the angels. We have some public hearings Wednesday August 13th is next Wednesday at 6:00 o'clock on the preliminary budget. The announcement has already been snraid on the website. -- displayed on the website and it will go on tctv shortly. And if not already. Thatay have gone this morning. And then there's another -- that's not a statutorily required hearing. That's the hearings for people to comment on the preliminary budget and anything that might be before them. We have a required budget hearing on September 24th on the tax rate and t budget, a public hearing on Tuesday, in the morning, on the proposed budget. And then actually naturally every Tuesday hearing citizens communication. And in terms of what comes next, our budget hearings start today. They end Friday the 22nd. They're scheduled every afternoon on Monday, Wednesday and Thursdays, plus mornings on Fridays. You have the schedule in front of you. Because of the -- there actually was a lower demand from the departments for those budget hearings. There are more days available for you to conduct other county business. Budget mark jerusalem is on September 10th, 11th and 12th, and the schedule calls for you to adopt the budget on Tuesday, September 30th.
>> did we not add one more hearing? I think with our action on Tuesday i've got it marked on Wednesday, August 27th, we're going to do a public hearing related to any increases on fees that are out there.
>> yes, that's correct.
>> you might want to add that to our running total.
>> I will make sure that's on there. So that's basically a quick high level overview of what's in the preliminary budget. You have the schedule before you, which has changed almost on a daily basis, hopefully things will settle down. Now in terms of changes, but there may be here or there some changes that occur. The only other thing I wanted to walk through with you is this 11 by 14 sheet of paper. Those of you that have gone through this process are familiar with it. Both leroy, ellis and I met with the entire leadership of the county attorney's office to make sure that we were in good shape, and what you have before you is in essence your note papers. This document represents what is already in the preliminary budget, those 400 proposed increases or decreases by department. And you will see that when there is the first column, there's a department and the rank. You'll either have a number, which is an increase, or an r, which means reducon. So, for example, if you look at, say, tax assessor collector, you will have one, two, three, four, that means four different options for increases. And r 1 through r-5, which are five different opportunities for decreases. What you have then is the name of the request, the verified requested amount. And that is from the planning and budge office so at least the numbers are right, and then what is in the preliminary budget. If it's zero, it's not there. If there's a number, then that's the number. It may or may not be the same number as what was requested. Plus f.t.e. You have a notes column for you to use if you will throughout all of the budget discussion, just take notes, your own private notes to remind you of what you believe to be an appropriate response to the discussion that occurs before you. And then we have a column that says check to put on the agenda for discussion. What that means is that's what you want to talk about during markup. You want to put it on the agenda. You will get a new one of these on the very last day of the budget hearing. As you remember, what happened sometimes is departments come before you and they go, well, do you know what, I have three options, different options. Option a, option b, option c, that I never talked to anybody about, but here are my new options. Or I want to strike three things and take them off the table. And I have a new I can't understand nobody knows about it and it just happened and here's the new proposal. We incorporate those so that by the time you finish all your budget hearings, you have a total accurate listing of all of the issues before you. Then we will hand you a new one of these 11 by 14 sheets with -- without the notes but just with check to put on the agenda for discussion. And what you will need to do is during that after the end of budget hearings, identify what it is you want to talk about, what it is you want to do. Give those to the judge's office where the county judge is the presiding officer as the responsibility to determine what's on the agenda. And then the judge's office can give it to us. We will then compile it. And we'll start markup with issues where there are five checks to talk about it, five marks to say I want to put it on the agenda. And this is a way to prioritize 400 issues that are eligible to be talked about during markup, but which, you know, ha may not want to talk about all 405, therefore what we do during markup is just then simply saying okay, here are items where there are five of you that want -- have asked the judge to put it on the agenda. And then you'll talk and vote and deliberate and decide what you want to do in public. That was a process that seemed to make the most amount of sense given all the discussions that have occurred with -- over the years on how to manage the markup process.
>> so the numbers in the general fund and the r numbers on the rank are letters rather than numbers?
>> that's correct. But under fund you will notice it says one -- there's not always a one there. One is for the general fund. But you might look at the second page. If you go to the second page and you'll see under hr, you'll see fund 1 and then you will also see fund 525. Fund 525 happens to be the risk management fund. So it's not always a 1. Most of them are ones, but you'll see under the category, you'll see a lot of one's and then you will see a fund 28. That happens to be the special records management fund.
>> but the number under general fund means what? The first number is $14,001.
>> that's correct. That means that was a proposal from that office for a reduction of $14,001 from the general fund.
>> it doesn't really show where the preliminary budget has each office.
>> yes, it does. That it has a zero and that means the preliminary budget did not have that reduction.
>> do you go somewhere else to see that department's budget?
>> you go to the write-up.
>> now, were these the funds as given to the -- (indiscernible). Is that what these represent, r-1, r-2 in.
>> each of these reductions was a result of the requesto identify reductions of up to five percent. Not all departments had a five percent reduction. Some do, some don't. And each write-up -- each of the analysts reviewed those reduction opportunities, and you will have a write-up that explains our logic and rationale for either accepting it or rejecting it. You may disagree on both sides, but the rationale for why we did or did not clude it in the preliminary budget is included in your black book write-up.
>> so the county judge is -- I guess that's a negative number. That simply means of the various red ctions considered, none was taken and therefore you just total up all of the possibilities.
>> that's correct.
>> one thing I should add on that is is a reduction proposal included in the budget being submitted under the target, then the savings would be captured more on budgets submitted to the target. If they're submitted they will be counted that way. If we counted it below target, plus in this sense we'd be double counting. I only mention tha because some of the Commissioners or other departments did include in their proposal something under target and it wouldn't be captured on this list, it would be captured in the savings.
>> but it would be captured in the write-up for that department. Every department has a first section which talks about the base budget. Sometimes that is one page, sometimes that's eight pages. It's basically when a department submitted a budget below target, that will have been articulate understand that section of the write-up. Then the opportunities for decreases and requests for additions, each have a separate analysis or comment. Some of those analysis are true, some of them are two sentences, wch if we were in a fiscal crisis, we would accept it. Since we're in the in fiscal crisis, we don't believe that the reduction is warranted given the negative impact.
>> so the amount on this sheet on a preliminary budget represents actions taken in response to requested increases by the departme or reductions?
>> exactly.
>> so we start off with the current level being excluded from this?
>> yes.
>> and we deal with increases or decreases above or below the current level?
>> exactly. This is an incremental document.
>> so depending on whatever office it is, some folks, if they weren't asking for anything extra, the only thing you might see listed under there were the ideas for reductions that were offered and whether you guys accepted them or not. But other larger departments that I'm not picking on them, facilities, they not only had things where they said here are things we can cut, but they said while you're at it, here are things we need. Theirs may be a lot more extensive in terms of pluses and minuses in terms of where you wind up?
>> yes, in that example there's one reduction and a few more than one increases.
>> and they all commit schmidted their budget under target.
>> right. -- submitted their budget under target.
>> so that's your homework I wish for you to take copious notes and then receive the final -- if the fm -- we're naming it the budget agenda request form, so that what you're doing form atly illbe asking the county judge for --
>> do your acronym and figure it out.
>> it will be called the budget agenda request form. I'm sorry. We'll figure it out. [ laughter ]
>> I think it's the last with a k, maybe ark. That kd of summarizes our introduction. We thought we would be a little faster, but at this point the -- all officials have been informed of the court's -- dirnt members of the court's perspective on the tax rate contained in the preliminary budget. And some members of the court have different ideas about what to do in terms of taking this preliminary budget and taking it from the planning and budget office and the departments and making it your own. And at this point I would ask to pass the gavel off to the judge to organize the discussion.
>> okay. In my view, how we'll handle it today was that it's my belief -- it was my belief that we ought to give ourselves an opportunity to look at the preliminary budget and throw out some things that ought to be further considered. I thought those recommendations may include other departments, and those deptment heads should be given an opportunity to respond to the recommendations. And I think that's why we have today's discussion and the next discussion is Wednesday of next week. That will give us an opportunity to not only listen to impacted department heads, but also to mull over their different positions
Last Modified: Friday, August 8, 2003 8:52 AM