Travis County Commissioners Court
June 3, 2008
Item 29
That's number 29. Consider and take appropriate action on update of fiscal year 2009 budget requests and parameters.
>> (indiscernible) is not here yet.
>> that's okay. I知 sure he's on the way.
>> I知 sure he is. Thank you, judge, Commissioners. Rodney rodes, planning and budget. Just want to kind of give you a rundown of where we are during the budget process. Back in February we came to the Commissioners court and we gave a range, a high and a low, of -- as it relates to the effective tax rate with the high range at two and a half percent. At that point we were assuming a collection rate of about 99.5%. And as you heard last week, during the auditor's first revenue discussion, the revenues have come in about $22.8 million less. At this point as it sits right now, we are about 2.05 percent less -- 2.05 percent above the effective tax rate. We have had -- there he is. We have had 436 total requests come in to the budget office totaling 48.7 million, with a grand total of 384 f.t.e. Requests. I want to just touch base on some of the budget issues that we're facing as we go forward with the budget process. Fuel costs increases have been probably one of our highest priorities during this budget so far. We've had $1.45 million in additional fuel costs requests. In addition to that, our utility costs have -- the requests have increased for utility costs by 1.2 million. Indigent attorney fees by 1.2 million. We have funded the court approved new county court at law at 1.8 million has been requested for that new court. We have included staffing for the new jail facility. Staffing for the juvenile detention facility. And we are including at this time existing employee pay raises in the recommended budget that we're working on at this point. Just to give you a little bit of history or a little bit of where we stand as far as the employee pay increases, we went back and took a look at the cpi from April of '07 to April '08. Cpi is running about 3-point # 8. We do not -- is running about 3.9. We do not have the full cpi included in the budget, but we're getting as close as we can at this point. Let me talk about items that are not included in the budget. Staffing for the new financial system. Obviously that's a priority. We support it fully, but at this point we do not have sufficient resources to cover the cost to staff the new financial system.
>> based on a 2.05 above --
>> above the effective tax rate. Is that correct. That is correct. In addition to that, we have some four and a half to five million dollars in additional what we would consider to be funded if resources were available requests that are not included at this time as well based on limited resources. In your packet we have updated the budget parameters. And I draw your attention to page 3 of the budget parameters. The bottom line, the balance after the first revenue estimate and with all of those items that I discussed that are included in there, you will see an end balance of $1.1 million at this point. We are continuing to scrub those numbers to try to get that down, but that's where we stand at this point in time. We are at 2.05 rltd not 2.5 percent above the effective tax rate at this point. And we'll be happy to answer any questions you might have.
>> the 2.05 represents a 28-dollar increase for the average homeowner.
>> 29.07 cents toll exact.
>> average home price is.
>> 274,016.
>> so if your house appraises for significantly less than that, the increase would be significantly less than 29.
>> that's right.
>> so the budget revenue projection we're working on, is that the first one or the second one?
>> that's the first revenue estimate that we've received. Those are the numbers that blaine spoke of last week that we're working on.
>> and we normally get four or five?
>> five.
>> five? Okay. And you have had preliminary meetings with the departments, but others are scheduled?
>> the preliminary meetings will start next week. We'll begin I believe it's Thursday meeting with the departments. We're in the process at this point of doing the write-ups and reviewing those write-ups and we will get those out to the departments hopefully this week or first part of next week.
>> so the preliminary work for the departments is money is incredibly tight.
>> yes, sir.
>> much tighter than it's been during previous -- during recent budget cycles.
>> yes, sir.
>> and that's a reality that we have to deal with. And the way the economy is looking, fuel and energy costs increasing, it may well get even tighter between now and markup.
>> yes, sir.
>> all that's correct?
>> yes, sir. Our biggest concerns are fuel and utility increases. We're continuing to see the costs go up. Obviously as fuel goes up, so does utilities. We're going to bring on a new 250,000 square feet, I believe it is, new jail facility. We're projecting that I believe it's sometime may or June. Is that right?
>> June.
>> of next year, which will impact obviously our utility costs. So there are a number of variables that are built into that. But fuel and utilities continue to be on our radar screen.
>> it seems to me that we ought to appoint a small fuel and utility working committee to look at steps we might take to maybe reduce the increase. And based on news reports, some other jurisdictions are taking some action. We got an e-mail from a county employee where some county in alabama, I think, went to four days. I don't know how you do that with a jail, a court system and other things that must trait five days or even seven -- that must operate five days or seven or even around the cold front but perhaps we ought to invite suggestions and recommendations about cost saving measures we can take. And rather than wait until storm hits, I think we ought to go ahead and start discussing that, and whatever steps we can take, take now, because we're being impacted this budget year, right?
>> right.
>> we did have quite a bit in different reserve line items, so we should be able to weather the storm, but it doesn't bode well for 2009 and we may have to take some drastic steps. Some of the fuel utilization we cannot avoid, but I知 willing to bet that some of it we really can if we put our minds to it. With the 11 or 1200 automobiles operating, if you just -- if you really focus on fuel savings and energy savings, I think we can make a positive impact. But I would invite county managers, supervisors, employees to join us in the effort and move in that direction. Should we have an item on as early as next week?
>> we can do that.
>> and in term of a small committee, some of the departments have so many vehicles and use so much energy that they almost have to have mandatory membership for them, don't we? Not that they wouldn't just volunteer to serve anyway. But I have in my mind several individuals who will either serve as co-chairs or active participants just because of the number of vehicles and utility uses they have.
>> judge, I think it would be good to encourage county employees -- some of them may have some good ideas to drop in a suggestion box somewhere an idea for how to be more efficient or save money or work smarter, work more efficiently. All those kinds of things I think would help. But we certainly want the county employees to know that their suggestions are welcome.
>> am I the only one that's gotten an e-mail talking about a four-day work week for a number of people?
>> no, but some of those work and some don't work.
>> I know that some do and some don't.
>> some would need to be passed out and see if they're really effective.
>> there's a spot for a committee. I mean -- because I don't have a clue who really could work -- which department could work a workforce four days a week versus five days a week. Have we ever had that kind of committee?
>> that would be part of the charge to look at work schedules, fleet vehicles, fleet vehicle parking.
>> efficient trip planning.
>> this is where my staff needs to turn the television off.
>> [ laughter ]
>> utility usage.
>> there are a lot of places where we could be more efficient.
>> I知 wide open. I just think that we taught have this working group and -- owe ought to have this working group and they should invite recommendations and comments from everywhere. We employ a lot of people. They do different things, so you don't necessarily have to come to work five days a week. The newspaper article they're working four days, 10 hours each. If you want to telecommute, it may make sense. I知 just thinking the problem, whenever we give one of those sort of few hours holiday breaks, then a lot of county employees are emergency, essential employees and they can't participate. If you're in detention at gardner-betts, you're a corrections officer, you're law enforcement, chances are you have to keep working. Although it's two or three hours, the Friday before christmas if it's on a weekend, the e-mails I get are from employees who can't participate. And I知 thinking that there are others who really need to be here five days a week. But if they're working at home, maybe employees who can't participate will understand, although so and so is at home today, he or she should be working. Anyway, but I think any ideas that make sense I think we ought to let the committee evaluate them, come to us and make recommendations. The bottom line is we need to do whatever we can to better control fuel costs, energy costs, and for that matter any other cost. How many buildings do we have?
>> probably 30 or 40, I would guess.
>>
>> [inaudible - no mic].
>> okay. That's pretty close, though, isn't it? 40 or so? My thinking is if you can do some little things at that many locations and really impact your energy bill. Which is what we ought to be trying to do. Taxpayers would say we should be doing it all year, and we really should, but with a situation like this, it seems to me that we taught double those efforts -- we ought to double those efforts.
>> what about something like every two days you don't eat your jail food you get one day out early?
>> [ laughter ] let's really get outside the box. Our food costs have gone crazy in our jail. It's serious.
>> I don't think there's a lot of -- no pun intended. I doubt there's a lot of flab in the budget for food at the jail.
>> bill keeps it pretty tight.
>> I think it's important that you think about the potential suggestions that you consider the potential liability and risks that are associated with some of these suggestions like
>> [inaudible - no mic].
>> but let's not do the government thing and find a reason not to be able to do something. I mean, that's -- let's really think about a way that you could really do something. I知 not saying you're suggesting that, barbara, but it's the easiest thing to do is just, oh, you can't do that because here's what happens if you do this. If you are really serious about wanting to cut government spending, then you've got to get serious about it, but you've got to be realistic about it.
>> there's no point in cutting your costs in relation to fuel oil and utilities if you're increasing your potential liability in other areas to a greater extent than you've saved costs. You need to sort of be intelligent about how you implement any suggestions.
>> judge, were you suggesting that perhaps pbo would bring back an agenda item next week that would discuss the charge of a proposed committee? Is that what you had in mind?
>> what I had in mind is us having an item that allows us to appoint the working committee. And the charge is a four or five sentence short paragraph. I知 suggesting that we all kind of brainstorm between now and then and try to get this done.
>> okay. We'll be glad to bring that back.
>> I was going to touch base with the managers that I think really need to be on there and maybe we basically will authorize them to touch base with different departments to get input.
>> next week you'll have the budget adjustments, the requests from tnr for the regular fleet fuel increase, and you will have starflight's budget adjustment for the fuel increase. So this discussion will be timely.
>> and a minute ago you said we are $1.1 million over the budgeted amount for fuel county-wide.
>> well, we're 1.1 -- are you talking about for fiscal '08 or as we go into '09?
>> whatever we over in '08?
>> I can only speak on county wide fuel. I don't have starflight's budget in front of me, but on county-wide fuel we are currently projecting, and this is a-old-month, $700,000 over the budget. We are currently budgeted at two .45 dollars per gallon. As you can probably readily understand, that is not what we're paying right now. Now, we'll need to work with tnr to see if some of that can be covered internally or not internally, but currently we're projecting 700,000. That will be reviewed again late they can -- early next week on end of year's as well.
>> so was it 1.1 million for '09?
>> that's the imbalance as we currently sit today for the '09 budget. Yes, sir, for ongoing dollars.
>> but the fuel -- tnr has requested 1.3 million for next year, for '09 increase in their budget, of which we've got about a million dollars, 900 to a million dollars in these numbers. The difference between that is starflight's increase, and they've got an increase for next year. And you add those two up and you've got about 1.1, 1.2 without any increased usage. Now, tnr in their budget request has a seven percent escalation in usage, which we have not funded within these budget parameters.
>> that's the million dollars I remember.
>> right.
>> anything else? The working committee makes sense, doesn't it? We can give it a try.
>> yep.
>> we'll have the item on and give us some thought between now and then and maybe we can put together a draft memo for the court to consider.
>> if there are employees that are watching right now and have heard, would we want any kind of comments to go to pbo, judge? Does that get them to the pbo office?
>> that's fine.
>> any suggestions? They just start aaccumulating.
>> would love to have them.
>> thank you very much.
>> thank you.
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.
Last Modified:
Tuesday, June 3, 2008 12:51 PM