County Administrator Judi Boyko, who picked Burton for the job, announced to office holders and department heads last week the commissioners’ directive for a 4.14 percent across the board budget cut. The county needs to fill an anticipated $20 million budget hole, due to lost revenues during the two-month coronavirus pandemic.
After initial on-boarding activities like learning government systems and the like, Burton said she expects to dive right in. She has been involved in local government budget cutting before and the goal is maintaining services taxpayers expect while still keeping the budget balanced.
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“It’s going to be difficult and I’m going to hit the ground running,” she said. “I hope that I’m able to establish that trust and sincerity with the various department heads and elected officials and the different divisions at the county, in order to work with them, to help them determine where we can comply with these reductions that are going to have to take place. I won’t impose myself on the departments there is no one that knows their operations better than they do.”
The commissioners have agreed to empty the $12 million budget stabilization fund and use $1.5 million from a reserve fund that started the year with a $56 million balance, to help close the revenue gap. Boyko has said she hopes she is wrong about the shortfall amount, but asked the office holders to cut from their total approved budgets for the year, not just expenses going forward.
Boyko said since her announcement a week ago she has been communicating with the offices to see if they need help deciding where to cut or if they will develop their own cost reduction plans. She said Burton will now join those discussions.
“”I’ve received several calls, just talking through options and ideas some of the offices have,” Boyko said. “So she will definitely be involved in those conversations.”
Boyko has been handling the county’s response to the pandemic, her own duties and helping the lone budget analyst keep the finance department afloat. The commissioners have said they want a deep dive into a financial forecast for the county. Boyko said she trusts Burton will tackle that much needed project soon after she starts.
“We need a very robust analysis consistently, continuously for our financials…,” Boyko said. “Whether a government’s financial solvency is stable and well or not, these types of analysis mid-year and quarterly analysis should be done, it’s just responsible financial planning for the taxpayers.”
Burton said this crisis is unique in that no one could anticipate it, unlike the Great Recession that most people saw coming, It will be a challenge to forecast the future because “there is little history for us to draw upon,” but she’s ready to get started.
“Because I have a background in quantitative analysis, with strong statistics and analytics, that serves me well in the finance office…,” Burton said. “This is unprecedented, this will be more challenging, I am up to it. I love numbers, I do think numbers speak for themselves, they speak a lot of different languages though.”
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