County tightens budget

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

By Ben Cannon

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-Teton County Commissioners this week approved a budget amendment designed to help pad a revenue shortfall expected to total around $2.6 million.

Commissioners on Tuesday adopted the amendment, which will reduce expenditures totaling around $1.9 million for the remainder of the fiscal year. The additional $800,000 will come out of the county’s cash reserves, Teton County Administrator Jan Friedlund said.

In November, the board directed department heads to find ways to cut up to 10 percent from their operating budgets without reducing wages or hours for county employees.

“We asked for all the County departments to look at their budgets midyear and see where they could save,” said County Commissioner Leland Christensen. “Some could and some couldn’t.”

Departments like Parks and Recreation, which operates on a budget that is discretionary to some extent, will not be able to complete some repair and maintenance projects, and will have to cut some seasonal labor. Additionally, a hiring freeze means many departments will have to operate a few employees short of a full staff.

Parks and Recreation currently has two full-time positions that will go unfilled for the foreseeable future, and the department has had to cut operating hours at the County-operated Recreation Center. By closing the Rec Center two hours earlier several days a week, and opening it at noon on Saturdays instead of at 10 a.m., 25 man-hours per week will be saved, according to department director Steve Foster.
In the winter, Parks and Recreation plows snow along about 15 miles of sidewalk. The absence of workers in just two positions can mean the job is not finished until later in the day, said Foster.

“It means we can’t meet the service level expectations some would like,” Foster said.

Other County entities, like the sheriff’s office and planning department, are lacking deputies and planners respectively, and the County for now will leave unfilled even the fire marshal position, which has been vacant since the fall. But Friedlund said the County is equipped to handle the manpower shortages.

“It’s not like we’re without the skills to do this right now,” Friedlund said.
While the hiring freeze has affected some of the county’s public services, departments like the offices of county treasurer and county assessor, whose budgets largely support personnel, have not been affected as directly as departments that require capital for maintenance, equipment and new projects.

County department leaders currently are preparing new budgets for the next fiscal year, which begins in July. The county has instructed them to reduce 5 percent from last year’s approved budgets and has placed a salary freeze for all county employees.

Commissioners traveled to Cheyenne last week to meet with commissioners from around Wyoming. There, the topic of conversation largely centered on tax relief from the state. But does Teton County, with a tourist economy unique to Wyoming, have to tighten the belt more than counties where mineral extraction and agriculture have remained more stable during the recession?

“I think we’re all in this together, but [other counties] are not quite feeling the same pinch we are,” Christensen said.  PJH


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County tightens budget | Planet JH News Article: County News

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