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Hernando Today

Hamilton Releases Budget Preview

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By MICHAEL D. BATES

Hernando Today

Published: June 28, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - BROOKSVILLE - County Administrator David Hamilton on Friday unveiled his much-awaited 2009 budget preview, which includes several key cost-cutting recommendations.

The most glaring of his suggestions include: A $200,000 reduction to the county's subsidy for THE Bus; a change of funding for the remediation of the contaminated former Department of Public Works site (but allows cleanup operations to continue); adjustments to the bloated Hernando County Jail budget; and a 7 percent reduction in the entire countywide fleet.

Hamilton is also recommending trimming another 20 employees from the payroll.

He is not advocating any adjustment to the existing millage rate of 5.43.

The county is looking at a $15.9 million gap between revenues and anticipated expenses in 2009. The loss of ad valorem revenue is projected to be $6.1 million.

If his budget recommendations are approved, Hamilton estimates he could reduce that gap by some $4.4 million.

Given the magnitude of the changes to county finances, Hamilton is suggesting the gap reduction be phased in over a two-year period.

"That would allow us to manage our way down to lower cost operations and yet continue to provide the services the public expects us to provide," Hamilton said.

Citing the need to streamline operations, Hamilton said he is driving toward cutting the number of government departments from 25 to between 10 and 12. That would eliminate the need for many managers and supervisory personnel, some of whom will be offered retirement buyouts, Hamilton said.

In addition, Hamilton is suggesting several energy-saving measures.
Staff Reductions
Hamilton is proposing a general salary adjustment of 2 percent for the entire organization, including Constitutional Officer's staffers.

Higher-paid managers would get less than 2 percent.

Following the lead of the county sheriff's office, Hamilton is recommending to commissioners they reconstruct the current pay grid system into one that is more manageable and provides uniformity across departments.

The county currently has about 455 class codes for 900 county commissioners staffing positions.

"This confusing grid of pay options will need to be completely overhauled by our new human resources director as a top priority," he said.

The current pay grid system, based in large part on an employee classification and compensation study by the Mercer consulting firm, does not provide a detailed plan the county needs to plan a budget over a period of years, according to Hamilton.

Nor does the current plan provide the uniformity Hamilton said he is seeking in all departments.

He is suggesting trimming $196,000 from the county's overtime budget; $96,000 from the travel budget; $85,000 from the training cost budget.

THE Bus

The current subsidy by one-third for The Bus is $600,000, so a reduction of $200,000 would likely equate to cutting one day of service, according to County Commissioner David Russell.

That recommendation to cut bus funding comes only three weeks after the release of a consultant's ridership survey.

Of the 790 surveys handed out to riders of THE Bus, 447 were completed, according to the survey.

The survey showed 21 percent of riders use Hernando County's mass transit system to commute to work. That's up from 12 percent in 2003.

Another 27 percent of riders used THE Bus for shopping trips, a modest increase from 23 percent in 2003.

Russell has already said the survey confirmed what he's thought all along - that there is not enough of a demand for the county to continue to spend $600,000 annually to fund the service.

The total annual operating costs for fiscal year 2007 for providing the fixed-route bus service is $1.67 million, according to the county.

The Jail

The county is looking to trim $3 million this year from its jail budget and another $5.7 million for fiscal year 2009. That is due to an unanticipated decrease in the number of prisoners at the jail and a subsequent drop in costs.

The county's budgeted contract with Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) - a private company that runs the jail - increased from $12 million in 2007 to $15.3 million in 2008.

The estimated jail budget for 2009 is $18.7 million.

The Next Step

County commissioners have carved out time on their Tuesday business meeting agenda to discuss Hamilton's budget-cutting recommendations.

Russell said he plans to review the budget preview over the weekend.

"It's a start," Russell said. "I like the way he's gone through this methodically."

Hamilton said this is a compilation of months of works by many department staffers. Many of the recommendations may not even float and may not come together at once, he said.

But it is a way to get the talks started as he inches his way toward submitting a balanced budget by July 15, he added.

Reporter Michael D. Bates can be reached at 352-544-5290 or mbates@hernandotoday.com.

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