The heads of various Dane County departments gathered Monday evening to outline how budget cuts would affect their respective agencies for the coming year.
From cutting positions and salaries to program funding and the programs themselves, few department heads appeared before the supervisors and said they met the necessary cuts for the year’s budget.
Among the most difficult of budget presentations was that of the Sheriff’s Department, headed by Sheriff David J. Mahoney. The department failed to meet its goal of a 6 percent decrease in expenditures, instead managing to achieve a decrease in expenditures of only 0.37 percent.
In a budget Mahoney called “absolutely necessary to maintain the current level of service,” the department requested an increase in training, increased maintenance of department vehicles and additional funds for ammunition, among other requests.
Vacant positions were an issue across nearly all departments, and reduced salaries and termination of positions have forced many departments to stretch their already thin resources even thinner.
Veterans Services Officer Michael R. Jackson said he was concerned about his department’s ability to provide services when units from the Wisconsin National Guard return from deployment, which is expected to happen early this coming year.
“It’s a very tough budget, so all the department heads were having to prepare budgets that included making cuts, cutting staff, curtailing programs, raising revenues — some of which can be fairly harmless. Some of it involves raising fees,” Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk’s Chief of Staff Topf Wells said.
For the District Attorney’s Office, maintaining a status quo of public safety is central to the budget.
“It does no good to the community to have enough police officers if there aren’t enough attorneys to process and move the cases forward,” said Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard, addressing the problem of the severe shortage of attorneys.
Another hotly contested budget cut revolved around the current weapons screenings at the Dane County Courthouse.
The proposed budget may cut back on screenings, and many departments said they were short-staffed and unable to provide for this necessary service. Few supervisors said they were keen on the idea of balancing a budget at the expense of the safety and peace of mind of the public.
Most department heads said this year’s budget was extremely difficult and characterized by needs and not wants. They said departments are doing what they can to still remain functional while coping with the financial demands and responsibilities of Dane County.
A small showing of members of the public meant the majority of the time was given over to the department heads to lay out their budget proposals.
However, numerous environmental advocacy groups stated their cases to the supervisors, asking for maintained funding for various economic projects.
“I think the tone of the evening was somber, and appropriately so … when (Dane) County Executive [Kathleen Falk] says this is one of the toughest budgets since the Great Depression,” Wells said. “I don’t hear much disagreement.”
