Park County, Colorado
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January 2003
Happy New Year to all Park County Employees!
We want to take a minute to thank all of you for all of your hard work and effort this past year! Since there are so many rumors and stories, we also wanted to bring you all up to date on the most recent budget process and how next year's budget came into being. This year, the BOCC decided that we would not use P.I.L.T. funds (Payment In Lieu Of Taxes for public land in Park County) for operational costs, as has been done in the past. To use P.I.L.T. funds for operations could be fiscally disastrous since these funds come from the Federal level of government and are subject to reduction or elimination. We are using these funds for "one-time" capital expenditures, such as completing the telecommunications loop with the state, a new permitting system, fixing the phone problems (once and for all), contribution to the E.S. Council for distribution to the fire districts, buying new computers and so forth.
You are all also aware that there were some health insurance issues. In short, the costs went up and our resource pool became dangerously low due to payouts for costly illnesses. In 2002, this translated into a "hit" to county funds of approximately $450,000, as well as additional funds from employees to cover the costs of health insurance. In 2003, the "hit" is approximately $185,000. The cost of the State legislated salary increases along with associated costs for some elected officials amounts to approximately $70,000. These are just some of the issues that had to be factored into this year's budget process.
In order to understand the budget of the present and the future, we decided to look at the trends of spending from 1996 to the present. Statutory requirements and TABOR allow the county to "grow" fiscally between 5% and 9% per year. When we examined the rate of growth for the budgets of the individual departments and offices, we discovered that the general trend for the growth of these budgets was significantly higher than 5% to 9%. We were forced to make some hard and unpopular decisions. There was a perception that we were punishing the taxpayers for not voting to "De-Bruce" the general fund. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are attempting to comply with their wishes by living within the funds that they choose to allow us to collect. We are all here to serve the public, the public is not here to serve us. There was also a perception that we were trying to cure the spending trend in one budget cycle by reducing certain budgets significantly. Again, nothing could be further from the truth. If this were the case, we would have had to cut approximately $750,000 from the Sheriff's Office(s) alone! This type of action would have been totally irresponsible and we would not be a party to such an action! While there were many cuts, most budgets were allowed to "grow" by approximately 5½ %. We believe that this type of action is in compliance with the Colorado Constitution and the Colorado Revised Statutes. Speaking of the Sheriff, he deserves a "hats off" for hiring Captain Monte Gore for the jail. Captain Gore and his staff have made great strides in making our jail begin to pay for itself. The revenues from the jail exceeded our wildest expectations this year! Captain Gore continues to successfully champion the cause of our jail against amazing odds and adversaries. However, with all the inmates come other costs; one of those being a new control system that costs approximately $178,000. Even so, we are delighted to report that at this time, the jail is looking good. Also, many of you probably know that we have hired an "in-house" County Attorney. We expect a significant savings in legal costs due to this action.
Because of the cooperation from the other Elected Officials and Department Heads, we were successful in producing a budget that is responsive to the taxpayers of Park County and that meets the needs of the County Government. If we can continue with the current frugal practices, we will look at the possibility of raises at the end of June, after the books are closed out and we know exactly where we stand. In fact, we believe that it should be a policy to consider raises in the summer, after we know where we stand and the tax dollars have come in to support the raises, rather than in January, before we know where we stand and we are waiting for tax dollars. Right now, we are hopeful. Again, we want to thank you and tell you that we appreciate each and every one of you!
We want to take a minute to thank all of you for all of your hard work and effort this past year! Since there are so many rumors and stories, we also wanted to bring you all up to date on the most recent budget process and how next year's budget came into being. This year, the BOCC decided that we would not use P.I.L.T. funds (Payment In Lieu Of Taxes for public land in Park County) for operational costs, as has been done in the past. To use P.I.L.T. funds for operations could be fiscally disastrous since these funds come from the Federal level of government and are subject to reduction or elimination. We are using these funds for "one-time" capital expenditures, such as completing the telecommunications loop with the state, a new permitting system, fixing the phone problems (once and for all), contribution to the E.S. Council for distribution to the fire districts, buying new computers and so forth.
You are all also aware that there were some health insurance issues. In short, the costs went up and our resource pool became dangerously low due to payouts for costly illnesses. In 2002, this translated into a "hit" to county funds of approximately $450,000, as well as additional funds from employees to cover the costs of health insurance. In 2003, the "hit" is approximately $185,000. The cost of the State legislated salary increases along with associated costs for some elected officials amounts to approximately $70,000. These are just some of the issues that had to be factored into this year's budget process.
In order to understand the budget of the present and the future, we decided to look at the trends of spending from 1996 to the present. Statutory requirements and TABOR allow the county to "grow" fiscally between 5% and 9% per year. When we examined the rate of growth for the budgets of the individual departments and offices, we discovered that the general trend for the growth of these budgets was significantly higher than 5% to 9%. We were forced to make some hard and unpopular decisions. There was a perception that we were punishing the taxpayers for not voting to "De-Bruce" the general fund. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are attempting to comply with their wishes by living within the funds that they choose to allow us to collect. We are all here to serve the public, the public is not here to serve us. There was also a perception that we were trying to cure the spending trend in one budget cycle by reducing certain budgets significantly. Again, nothing could be further from the truth. If this were the case, we would have had to cut approximately $750,000 from the Sheriff's Office(s) alone! This type of action would have been totally irresponsible and we would not be a party to such an action! While there were many cuts, most budgets were allowed to "grow" by approximately 5½ %. We believe that this type of action is in compliance with the Colorado Constitution and the Colorado Revised Statutes. Speaking of the Sheriff, he deserves a "hats off" for hiring Captain Monte Gore for the jail. Captain Gore and his staff have made great strides in making our jail begin to pay for itself. The revenues from the jail exceeded our wildest expectations this year! Captain Gore continues to successfully champion the cause of our jail against amazing odds and adversaries. However, with all the inmates come other costs; one of those being a new control system that costs approximately $178,000. Even so, we are delighted to report that at this time, the jail is looking good. Also, many of you probably know that we have hired an "in-house" County Attorney. We expect a significant savings in legal costs due to this action.
Because of the cooperation from the other Elected Officials and Department Heads, we were successful in producing a budget that is responsive to the taxpayers of Park County and that meets the needs of the County Government. If we can continue with the current frugal practices, we will look at the possibility of raises at the end of June, after the books are closed out and we know exactly where we stand. In fact, we believe that it should be a policy to consider raises in the summer, after we know where we stand and the tax dollars have come in to support the raises, rather than in January, before we know where we stand and we are waiting for tax dollars. Right now, we are hopeful. Again, we want to thank you and tell you that we appreciate each and every one of you!
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