County council to have first budget vote on Sept. 12

Nearly 2% of all funding requests made by department heads for next year have been cut by the Bartholomew County Council.

Prior to the annual budget discussions in August, department heads were requesting $67.6 million for the 2024 budget, which was $8.07 million more that this year’s budgets.

This included $35.8 million from the property tax-supported General Fund, which is $5.6 million more than this year. Requests for $33.02 million were made from “home funds” – a term referring to local income tax (LIT) revenue, grants, fees and other miscellaneous forms of income.

After four consecutive days of budget hearings, the council trimmed off $575,527 from requests paid through the General Fund, as well as $663,356 dollars from home-ruled requests, for a total of $1.24 million in reductions.

The first of two formal votes on the county’s 2024 budget will take place at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 12. The council is expected to take its final vote and officially adopt the budget at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 10.

With few exceptions, every department was able to produce a flat budget, council president Jorge Morales told The Republic. Those exceptions include an additional $24,609 for food at the county jail and increases in postage and printing materials, he said.

Salaries

Morales sent out an email Aug. 28 to several hundred employees of Bartholomew County government informing them they will receive a 4% raise next year.

Most of these workers received a 6.5% increase in pay hikes since the beginning of the year. A 3.5% raise was approved last October when the 2023 budget received final approval. Four months later, another 3% was first approved before it was made retroactive to the beginning of the year.

Council members felt the two hikes were justified. The first raise was approved after a March, 2022 wage study showed most Bartholomew County employees earned less than their counterparts in comparable-sized Indiana counties. Council members said they were motivated to further increase compensation after the county lost 25% of its workforce last year, mainly to the private sector.

But all unapproved requested salary increases were cut from next year’s budget, Bartholomew County Auditor Pia O’Connor stated. A request for the purchase of a new vehicle was also denied.

Those excluded from next year’s proposed 4% raise include merit deputies, informational technology specialists, correctional officers and dispatchers. These employees are currently paid through a complex matrix system that provides more compensation for years of experience and higher skill levels.

A proposed $70,000 annual minimum wage for new sheriff’s deputies remains in next year’s spending plan that, if approved, will cost taxpayers $453,560. Like many law enforcement agencies, the sheriff’s department wants parity with the Indiana State Police after the General Assembly voted early this year to provide new troopers an annual base salary with $70,000. However, the county will not provide a signing bonus as newly-hired state troopers receive, three-term council member and former two-term sheriff Mark Gorbett said.

Long overdue

After several delays in recent years, the county is now prepared to approve long-overdue repairs and upgrades at the Bartholomew County Courthouse, Morales said. The council president said he believes most of the remaining problems deal with air conditioning and a deteriorating water system. Work at the courthouse, which will likely cost about $2 million, will probably start in February, he said.

Four elected office-holders – County Treasurer Barb Hackman, County Recorder Tammy Hines, County Assessor Ginny Whipple and O’Connor – made a presentation to the council in August proposing a 6% raise for elected officials. As presented, the cost would add $411,987 to next year’s budget. While the wage increase for elected officials remains in the budget, the council is still examining different ways to determine appropriate increases, Gorbett said.

The four office-holders made a case that the increasing technical skills and ongoing education required from full-time elected administrators justified the raise. One of their strongest points was that a number of elected administrators will soon retire, and compensation must be raised high enough to attract well-qualified candidates from the private sector.

Sheriff Chris Lane’s requests to hire a full-time civil process server and a full-time clerical position remains in the budget, the council president said. The original proposal called for paying the process server a salary of $52,500, as well as $47,605 for the clerical position.

Former sheriff Matt Myers attempted to save money by hiring two part-time civil process servers, but few, if any, people have expressed interest in these positions since they both came open early last year, Gorbett said.

“We find it difficult to fill a part-time position,” Morales said. “Most people want a full time job.”

Fiscal flexibility

Since no formal votes were taken during the 21 hours of budget talks, nothing has been finalized. The announcements that Morales made were based on the degree of consensus each proposal received from the seven-member council in August.

But all fiscal requests can be adjusted up or down until the 2024 budget is finally adopted in mid-October, Gorbett said.

One proposal that didn’t make it through the budget hearings calls for an early payoff of the $6.8 million remaining on a bond used to expand the Bartholomew County Jail. Hackman said the invested money required to pay off the bond is earning about 4% interest, while the interest rate on the bond is only 2.5%.

“So we’re making money by not paying off the bond,” Morales said.

The council did display fiscal conservatism when they paid off the new Bartholomew County Court Services building, saving taxpayers about $600,000 in interest, Morales said.

All budgetary matters can be adjusted up or down until a final vote on the 2024 budget is taken in mid-October, Gorbett said.

The county has more than sufficient funds to make adjustments before the budget is adopted next month. When compared to the other 91 counties in Indiana, Bartholomew County’s financial condition “is fantastic,” Morales said. The main reason is the more than $16 million in federal money the county received through the American Rescue Plan paid for several items and projects that would have used LIT or General Fund money.

That helps explain why the county has $1.4 million in their proposed 2023 budget that has not yet been appropriated. Prior to the budget talks, O’Connor reported the property tax growth quotient has been estimated at 4%, which mean the county will get close to another million dollars.

The General Fund is expected to have a cash balance of $28.71 million at the end of the year. And as of the end of June, the county’s Rainy Day Fund had a balance of $10.22 million.

This has sparked some residents to request cuts in their taxes, but in accepting the federal ARP funds, county officials had to agree not to use federal dollars to either directly or indirectly lower taxes.

While Morales lauded Bartholomew County Auditor Pia O’Connor and her staff for their work, he also commended Bartholomew County Commissioners President Tony London for sitting in with the council during deliberations.