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Home > Blogs > Butler County News and Issues > Archives > 2009 > August > 17 > Entry
Dixon: Financial storm’s a-brewin’
Just in time for hurricane season, Butler County commissioner Donald Dixon says there’s a Category 5 financial storm headed for county coffers.
And, a newly formed group of office holders, department heads and county business leaders (led by Dixon and Domestic Relations Judge Sharon Kennedy) say there’s no boards on the windows, no food or water rationed and no plan in place for clean-up once it blows through.
An excerpt:
In a budget crisis, Butler County commissioners have two traditional choices: Enact sweeping cuts that could affect services, or use up cash reserves.
The latter option could leave them unable to cut payroll checks as early as the end of the first quarter and jeopardize their ability to borrow money for important projects, according to county finance officials.
But a newly formed group says there’s a third option: Drastic overhaul, cutting what they say is a budget that has grown bloated and unwieldy.
A national recession has — as with everyone else — brought the county to its financial knees. Revenues are down nearly $10 million — or approximately 10 percent of the county’s budget — from last year’s levels.
Officeholders are still struggling with nearly $2.6 million in cuts commissioners approved last month with a contentious 2-1 vote. Those cuts slashed the Board of Elections budget by 13.5 percent, and forced layoffs of sheriff’s deputies and court staff, among other areas.
The Budget Work Group, consisting of department heads, elected officials and county business leaders, says that was merely a stop-gap.
“That was taking a 2,000-pound grizzly bear and poking him in the eye with a stick,” said Commission President Donald Dixon, who voted against the July 16 cuts.
They want reform.
The story thus far has received a good deal of feedback, and Josh and I intend on addressing some of the questions posed in subsequent comments.
Here’s one, by “J.B.” on Aug. 16:
Just curious but who exactly is serving on this “work Group”? I think that’s an important thing the Journal needs to print or find out. I’m tired of only getting half of the story. I’m glad to see Mr. Dixon finally admitted he is in denial about budgets. That makes more sense when he votes to approve a half million in spending in December 2008 and then votes to kill the spending 7 months later. Denial would also explain why he would blame everyone else for this or is that projection?.
Response: As stated in the story, the group is made up of office holders, such as Clerk of Courts Cindy Carpenter, Treasurer Nancy Nix, Auditor Roger Reynolds, Dixon, Kennedy and others; department heads, such as Finance Director Bob Lowery, Budget and Management Director Pete Landrum and others; and area business leaders like Ed Dwyer from U.S. Bank.
These are public meetings. And if either of the other commissioners attend, the meeting would need to be publicized at least 24 hours in advance because of the existence of a quorum.
Another question from a reader:
Where does Dixon come up with some of these numbers and statements? Who’s in denial? It was the other two commissioners that made the $2.6 million in cuts, Dixon voted no, because it cut his girl friend’s budget 13.5 percent. Name some names Dixon, who is getting a 7% raise? The HJN should check these’s statements and numbers and call him on them before you publish them. You make it seem this nut knows what he is talking about.
Response: A sampling of previous stories about commissioners’ concern with automatic pay increases can be read here, here and here.
What other questions/comments do you have?
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Comments
By Carter
August 17, 2009 9:11 AM | Link to this
Here’s my question to Mr. Dixon. Why did he support every lay off and cut until the cut involved the agencies ran by his girl friend and his two man friends? Did this “NO” vote not destroy his creditability on budget cutting issues?
By Jim
August 18, 2009 1:18 PM | Link to this
Dixon’s no vote on chopping back to the 2007 budget was the ONLY intelligent vote. The Commission should have sat down with each elected official and separated from their budget what services they must provide by law and how much those services will cost, then start the cutting from there on down. That is exactly the bottom line the finance committee is trying to arrive at. But that would have been to great a task for Jolivette and Furmon.