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2001 County Budget Speech
Martha A. Womacks
Marion County Auditor
BUDGET PRESENTATION – MARION COUNTY AUDITOR
August 7, 2000
Mr. President, Members of the City-County Council, and Citizens of Marion County:
After much diligence and hard work by my staff, I am presenting to you a budget for the county for 2001 that will be funded without a tax increase. We have had the difficult job telling county agencies they will need to curb any new spending for 2001 except for certain items.
My primary objective for any new spending in the 2001 County Budget, as it was for 2000, is to give employees a cost of living increase. As you are aware, our work force is terribly underpaid and keeping our loyal employees is of utmost importance to me. Agencies will have 2.5% for salary increases as well as an additional 1% to help them with the disparity between our employees and those at the city. We will continue to pay both the employees' and the county's contributions to PERF (Public Employees' Retirement Fund).
There are substantial allocations from the Reassessment Fund. The next general Reassessment of all real estate is now scheduled for 2002 with taxes payable in 2003. That means most of the energy and work for that Reassessment will begin in 2001. Although it is not budgeted yet, we are anticipating an enormous drain on the Reassessment Fund for the development of a new property system. Our current system is over twenty (20) years old. It is important to have an appropriate means for calculating property assessed values from which we establish tax rates and send tax bills to be able to collect the dollars needed to provide all the services needed in Marion County.
The Forensic Services Agency (Crime Lab) will receive long overdue funding for the supplies and equipment they need and for the services they provide. These services aid our entire criminal justice system.
When grants expire, the county is faced with assuming the funding. Such is the case with the grant that provided fifteen (15) Sheriff's deputies. Although we plan to transfer some funds from the Sheriff's portion of the Deferral Fee Fund, the price tag to the county is just under $700,000. We are also including increasing the number of beds in Jail II by twenty (20).
Marion County must fund a new statutorily required court in January of 2001. Other budgets affected by a new court include the Prosecutor, Public Defender and Clerk for a total impact of $700,000.
We are budgeting $10,700,000 next year for our Department of Correction commitment for the incarceration of juveniles. We also continue to try to find ways of reducing that commitment or eliminating it completely.
As you can see from the previously mentioned items, our criminal justice system takes its toll on the budget. We had numerous requests from all of those agencies but we could not fund all of it.
The elevators in the center tower will undergo extensive modernization beginning this fall at a cost of $1,000,000 to the county. I am sure you would all agree that it is money well spent.
Revenue growth from assessed valuation is expected to increase at least 2 ½ % (percent) above what it was for 2000. The County Option Income Tax is expected to grow by 5.1% over 2000 which is indicative of our strong economy. The COIT rate of 0.7% will remain unchanged.
There will be a one time savings of $1,500,000 in 2001 from the Election Board budget since there are no elections next year.
We have paid off the bond for the old jail so the drain on our cumulative and general funds will not be as great in 2001. We have renewed our lease with CCA for another five years. We are continuing to be aggressive in dealing with the jail population problem. I have appreciated the cooperation of the Justice Agency, Sheriff's Department, Prosecutor and Public Defender's Offices and the Judiciary in dealing with this issue.
In 2001, I will continue to encourage county agencies to secure grant funds for projects they would like to pursue and to find private dollars when possible.
I will take this opportunity to point out to you that we have experimented with a separate ordinance proposing monies for grants. We hope this will save the council members time from having to listen to explanations for dollars unnecessarily. Granted, it will be a time savings for me and my staff, as well.
Although many of the technological changes we would like to make in our offices are financially infeasible, we are making progress in some areas. Our website contains valuable information for Marion County's citizens. Our budget will be available for anyone after tonight's meeting.
I look forward to working with all county agencies regarding budgetary measures in 2001 and with all of you. Thank you for your attention.
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