Lawrence County leaders who feel that they have already cut offices deeply will have to look a little deeper to meet the 2009 budget.

The Lawrence County Commission Thursday forwarded copies of the $13 million proposed 2009 general fund budget to each county officeholder.

If it is passed, officeholders would have to cut his or her budget by 15 percent from the original 2008 appropriations.

It would be the second year in a row officeholders have been asked to lop 15 percent from their individual spending plans. This is in addition to smaller cuts made in previous years.

“I don’t like being the bearer of bad news but we can’t spend money we don’t have,” Lawrence County Commissioner Jason Stephens said Friday.

When the 15 percent cut was enacted last year, some offices decreased the amount of money spent on supplies and equipment while others laid off employees or did not fill open positions. What will they do this year if faced with another 15 percent cut?

Officeholders are trying to figure out the answer to that question.

Keeping deputies

on the road

While the salaries for road deputies would be funded at current level, the budget for the rest of the sheriff’s office is subject to that 15 percent cut.

For a new sheriff just taking office, the idea of trying to run a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week office with $130,000 less than his predecessor got is not exactly welcome news to Jeff Lawless.

“Trying to provide law enforcement and maintain a jail is a huge cost,” he said. “This is going to be very, very difficult. But we’ll just have to see if we can make it through the year without having to cut an employee. We’re already at a very low staffing level as it is.”

Lawless said he hopes he can find grant money to supplement the decrease in general fund money and the fact that he now has new help. The commission Thursday agreed to merge the county’s emergency management agency and the sheriff’s office.

Though he will have his own budget, EMA Director Mike Boster will now share equipment and expertise with Lawless and crew.

Lawless said Boster has a great deal of experience getting grants and he is hopeful Boster can find grant money the county is not getting now.

Lawless said he will also have to more closely scrutinize the jail’s food budget and he hopes gasoline prices stay low so he can keep cruisers on the road without breaking the bank.

Smaller staff

Prosecutor J.B. Collier Jr., is one of the few officeholders who can, by law, court-order his budget.

Still, he said he is well aware the county has a financial crisis, as does the state.

Therefore, he will not at this time fill two vacant positions in his staff. One employee retired at the beginning of the year and another became ill and can no longer work.

“We could use more staff and more attorneys,” Collier said. “Everyone is working far more now than in the past to meet the increase in cases.”

He estimated not filling those positions will save $40,000 in salaries, twice that amount if you factor in the fringe benefits.

Wrestling with

numbers

Treasurer Stephen Dale Burcham said Friday he is not yet sure how he would comply with another 15 percent cut but he is willing to do his part knowing the financial condition of the county.

“It’s going to be difficult,” he said. “We don’t have any fat in our budget. Last year we were budgeted zero dollars for equipment.”

To comply with last year’s 15 percent cut, Burcham laid off one of his four staff members, making his bottom line reduction more like 25 percent.

To lay off yet another employee, he said, might not only affect the service he provides but affect checks and balances that are necessary in operating a fiscal office. Burcham also pointed out that a lot of his expenses are the printing and mailing of tax bills, something that absolutely must be done if the county is to collect real estate taxes.

“We are, have been and continue to be willing to work with the county commission in addressing the budget shortfall,” he said. “We will do whatever within our power to live within our budget and still provide the services by law that we are required to provide the citizens of Lawrence County. We will do out best to help,” Burcham said.

Creative solutions

Lawrence County Common Pleas Court Presiding Judge Charles Cooper said although his court is one of those that can court-order its budget, he is nonetheless willing to work with commissioners to reduce the burden the court system places on the county general fund — and he has found some creative ways to do it.

One way is to begin charging for some drug tests. The Adult Probation Agency, one of the five departments within the common pleas court system, performs drug tests for people who are on probation and are ordered to undergo drug testing as part of their probation.

But the APA is also often asked to perform drug tests for new county employees. Cooper also said it is also becoming a trend for people involved in domestic cases— divorces and child custody cases — to make accusations of drug use as a means of gaining or trying to gain the upper hand in their legal proceedings. New employees and those in domestic disputes will now be charged $30 for those tests.

“This will defer the expense of those tests to the people who use them,” he said. “We may make a couple of dollars but I am not sure how much. It won’t be a great income but it will defer the costs we’re asking the general fund to cover.”

Other changes are less creative, perhaps, but still necessary. Cooper said late last year the fee for court transcripts was increased from $1 to $3 per page as a way of covering costs.

In the past that fee was collected by the court reporter but is now split between the reporter and the county since the county provides the equipment needed to produce the paperwork.

Cooper said given this change he is not sure how much more money the transcript fee will bring in. In the past one murder trial racked up a $12,000 transcript tally.

Other lengthy trials have racked up thousands of dollars in transcript fees; the typical one and two-day trials understandably less.

He also said the common pleas staff will continue to pay for supplies, equipment and some other expenses out of non-general fund revenue streams.

The 15 percent cut will affect the commission office as well as other courthouse offices.

Stephens said he hopes the commissioner’s office will realize this year the savings from staffing charges made last year, when two full-time dog wardens left and were replaced with three part-timers and one senior maintenance worker retired and was replaced with two part-timers.

Stephens said it often takes several months before the savings from such changes is realized. He said in addition to actual salary savings, part-time employees do not receive fringe benefits and this is where the county can save a chunk of change.

“Almost 60 percent of salaries is the benefits, PERS (retirement), health insurance,” Stephens said. “Obviously we will keep looking at things to find efficiencies and find what will work best.”

He said he did not know immediately how much money would be saved because of these changes.