Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk discussed Gov. Scott McCallum’s state budget repair plan’s repercussions for Dane County Thursday at a County Board of Supervisors meeting.
The deficit repair plan would cut $5,740,000 intended for Dane County.
The cut can be divided into two major portions.
$5.5 million would be cut from the county’s shared revenue programs. “The additional $240,000 comes from a promise the state had to Dane County,” said Sharyn Wisniewski, executive assistant to Falk. “[The state] promised to pay $240,000 every year for 20 years to pay off bonds to expand the Alliant Energy Center.”
With the new budget program, this promise will not be kept, Wisniewski said.
However, the Alliant Energy Center is also being used as a possible way of receiving revenue.
“We are looking at the possibility of marketing naming rights for the new exhibition hall in the Alliant Energy Center,” Falk said.
Falk addressed the board concerning preparations for the potential state budget repair program, offering possible immediate action as well as some long-term solutions.
Some of her immediate proposals include a hiring freeze, delaying the upgrades of county personal computers, delaying county borrowing and freezing funds for roads, courthouses and conservation funds.
Falk also mentioned actions that affect her immediately.
“I will be taking a 5 percent reduction in pay, and my staff will be taking a 3 percent cut,” Falk said. “It is part of my job to take the cut first.”
A potential long-term solution, Falk said, includes temporarily laying off employees while still affording them certain benefits.
Falk said Dane County will deal with the cut in three phases.
The first phase involves directing spending freezes and delays in order to “save money now,” Falk said.
The second phase involves analyzing other options in areas where additional cuts could be made.
The third phase “redoubles efforts to find more efficiencies in the government,” she said.
Falk also stressed that the current budget for 2002 is balanced.
“The county has no deficit,” Wisniewski said. “The state has the deficit.”
Board members did have some reservations about the proposals.
“I do not like the idea of cutting into human services programs,” said board member Echnaton Vedder, District 8. “It scares me quite a bit because those are the programs that help those most in need.”
Falk will be talking with the County Board, mayors and village officials in the weeks to come. She said if conditions become severe, she will look to citizens for possible places savings could be made.
“These cuts were unexpected and unprecedented,” Falk said. “That is why it is important for us all to work together so we are united against the state.”
