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2002 County Budget Speech
Martha A. Womacks
Marion County Auditor
2002 BUDGET PRESENTATION – MARION COUNTY AUDITOR
August 6, 2001
Mayor Peterson, Mr. President, Members of the City-County Council, and Citizens of Marion County:
We are facing an extremely challenging task financing the county side of government for 2002. I have spent many hours pondering over what I would say to you tonight. After much diligence by my staff and the cooperation of many county agencies, I am presenting a budget to you that does not include a tax increase.
The mandate by the Marion County Superior Courts was absolutely devastating to the county's financial and strategic plan. The total cost of the mandate came to approximately $3.8 million and included additional costs for the Prosecutor's Office, Public Defender's Office, the Building Authority, the County Clerk's Office, the Sheriff's Department, and of course, my office. The mandate set the stage for the preparation of this budget.
My primary objective for the budget has always been to increase the compensation for our valued employees. This budget fell short of accomplishing this priority. However, I am requesting the Council to appropriate a portion of the additional County Option Income Tax dollars in order to give the well-deserving county employees a minimal 2 % increase for next year.
The most important priority of the county to its citizens is to provide for their safety. The county's 2002 budget preserves all levels of public safety. In fact, the county and this Council have just provided for the most important upgrade of the E-911 in decades and we did it with no increase in tax rates. We are also planning for a new Coroner's Office with no effect on any tax rate. I am requesting the Council to also consider appropriating a portion of the addition COIT funds for twenty (20) Sheriff's Deputies.
The Sheriff's Department has been working proactively to cooperate with the ICLU and ward off what might have been costly fines for the inmate population problem at the Lockup. A more efficient way of processing inmates will begin by the middle of this month and we anticipate even more efficiencies in coming months.
In the proposed budget you have before you, there are added costs for 48 additional beds for inmates in Jail II. We are requesting an additional 27 beds to bring the total to 75 which is the number that were funded earlier this summer. There are also funds for leasing a new coroner's office because of a need to provide space for performing autopsies previously done at Indiana University.
This budget will reflect substantial allocations in the Reassessment Fund, which is separate from the general fund, for the work to be scheduled for the 2002 pay 2003 General Reassessment. We must still look ahead to anticipate that a new property system is a critical need to be considered very soon. Our current system is 22 years old. As many of you know, this system is what we use to calculate assessments, the foundation
of our property taxing process. Without a functioning system, we cannot bill and produce the funds necessary to run the county.
Beginning in 2002, all assessed valuations will be multiplied times 3 and the tax rates will be divided by 3 accordingly so there will be no monetary implication to the taxpayer. This will prepare the taxpayer for the market value on his/her tax bill in 2003.
In order to meet the budgetary requirements for 2002, we will be taking a one-time credit against our outstanding Department of Correction bills of $3.4 million for amounts billed to the county for the assessment and evaluation of juveniles. We will continue to seek legislative relief for this ever-increasing drain on the county's budget.
The introduced budgets include the budget for the State's Family and Children Fund. This appropriation is for a state program managed by state employees under state policies and state guidelines spending county money. This should not in any way be considered as "county". As we have all anticipated, this budget requires a property tax increase. I request that you approve this budget as presented. I will continue to try to get legislative relief for what many consider to be a "state" problem. We have also filed appeals to the State Board of Tax Commissioners contending that this is an unfair tax because it is inequitable statewide.
Many of you are opposed to grants. However, grants have provided for many of our needs when local dollars are not available. The new community court on S. Shelby Street which opened on May 30 of this year is an example of what federal funding can do for us. The Prosecutor's office took the lead in seeing this become a reality. The Juvenile Accountability Incentive Block Grant has provided many needs for our juvenile system. We are in our third year of funding with this grant.
I would like to publicly commend Scott Newman, our Prosecutor, who has been consistently proactive in finding ways to supplement his meager budget. They developed a check deception outsourcing project which allowed them to eliminate fees to merchants, take a more aggressive stance on collections and prosecuting bad check writers, offer a class to offenders that did not exist before, and generate to this point approximately $80,000 in revenue for the operation of the prosecutor's office. This was also a wonderful community-minded effort.
They were also successful in getting enhanced state funding for the operation of Adult Protective Services which investigates elder abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation.
The Public Defender's Office has also been proactive in working toward greater state reimbursements to their office by meeting required standards.
The Recorder's Perpetuation Fund grows at a substantial rate each year allowing the county recorder to implement projects which are making her office more "user friendly".
I have been working with ACS programmers to develop software that will allow citizens to file deductions of all kinds on the web. Those homeowners who do not have computers will be able to file on computers located in their neighborhood library. Companies with main offices out of state will be able to file whatever their necessary forms might be from their home location. This will provide a convenience for them and cut down on those coming and going in this building.
As indicated so far, funding is difficult. However, we continue to try to be creative in our continuous endeavor to be of service to the citizens of Marion County. I have eliminated the travel portion of my budget for next year and I am making a plea to all agencies to consider the importance of their expenditures prior to making them. We should be ever mindful as to whether or not what we are spending is something that the taxpayers of this county should bear.
I plan to establish a panel of the best planners and managers in county government to implement a strategic planning process for the future of this county. The budget division of my office has worked long and hard this year to fund the priorities of county government. I want to see if there are others who can help with ideas for saving county dollars or spending them more wisely.
Thank you for your attention.
Marty Womacks, Auditor, Marion County
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