Given the current anti-tax environment — spurred by hefty increases over the past couple years — DD Board Superintendent Lee Ann Emmons told the Journal-News she hopes voters consider they haven’t asked for a “raise” in more than two decades.
“Think about what you were making in 2004 as a salary, could you live on that today,” she said. “We have been living on a 2004 allowance essentially for 20 years and we have been good stewards of that money, we have made that last well past what it should have and we’re really just asking to be brought current.”
Unlike most other taxing bodies the DD Board doesn’t receive inside millage, so they don’t benefit from value increases that have risen 110% since 2000. The board doesn’t provide direct services to its 4,300 clients, instead contracting out the support for things like transportation, home-delivered meals, employment assistance and more.
The board said in September that the organizations expenses are outpacing revenues by a large margin. The 2026 budget calls for $40.6 million in expenses, to be paid for with $28.1 million in revenues. They expect to have $20.4 million in unencumbered cash reserves to help bridge the gap. If the levy is successful revenues would jump to around $54.4 million. Business Services Director Hailey Quinn told the Journal-News the budget numbers don’t tell the whole the story.
“The numbers can look high without the context of our long-term obligations and the timing of when levy dollars are actually collected. Our waiver match alone is projected to consume nearly all current levy collections by 2026, and costs continue to rise each year as we support over 4,200 individuals. At the end of 2026, our carryover cash reserves are projected to be around $5 million,” she said and later added. “This levy request is a conservative approach and based on current projections, the new funds may only sustain our obligations for roughly five years, thus we are actively working on additional cost savings measures.”
They have canceled all wage increases for this year and next, reduced work hours by 2.5 hours, which will reduce personnel costs by roughly 6.7% and made other spending adjustments for a total budget reduction of $2.1 million.
“In this economy that’s an impact for our staff but we have seen a full commitment from our staff that work at the county board, including our union that voted to approve this plan,” Emmons said. “Because they believe so strongly in what we do and want to continue to do that work.”
The county commissioners must approve putting a levy request on the ballot and Commissioner T.C. Rogers expressed concern for the workers under present conditions.
“This is like a definition of what a safety net is,” he said. “When I hear about your staff has signed onto this and essentially are going to have two years of non-incentive (raises) financially that concerns me.”
Medicaid pays 60 percent for services the board provides, and the local levies make up the difference. Part of the reason the board has struggled financially has been an increase in those local waiver matching funds for Medicaid, to keep people with disabilities integrated in the community. Emmons said “We’ve seen a large increase in demand for services and demand for those services at a younger age.”
The state has also had a hand in the budget woes, Last year the legislature pushed through a major Medicaid reimbursement rate hike for direct support workers that is paid out of the local waiver match. The per-hour wages were increased from a “working poor” rate of $11 up to as much as $18.
“The rate increase also dramatically impacted our costs,” Emmons said. “You raise everything 38% and then you can start to see the math pretty quickly. It was a needed increase I think but it is creating some sustainability issues.”
A deliberate effort to help taxpayers a couple years ago has also impacted the board’s finances. With cash reserves at 92% of its annual budget, the DD board agreed to a $3.6 million tax rollback in 2020 and again a year later for a total tax break of $7.2 million.
Emmons said had they not rolled back the money they might not have had to make the recent budget cuts, but “to say exactly how that would have played out would just be fortunetelling which I can’t do.” She said she believes they would still have to ask the voters for a revenue boost.
The board also stands to lose roughly $250,000 next year because the county commissioners deployed a property tax reform option state legislators inserted in the state budget. State lawmakers gave county commissioners the authority to essentially double the state-funded Homestead exemptions and 2.5% owner-occupancy credits for eligible property owners using local dollars.
The commissioners only deployed the “piggyback” Homestead exemption portion of the new law, which will reduce revenues for all taxing bodies by about $7.6 million.
Commissioner Don Dixon told the Journal-News, “$250,000 is a lot of money but when you roll it into the whole scheme of things it’s really not on the radar as being a major problem.”
The commissioners are expected to approve the levy request on Tuesday.
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