2012 Budget Chat with Lyon County Controller Dan Slater
August 11, 2011
2012 Budget Chat with Lyon County Controller Dan Slater
Moderator: We are now ready to start our final chat today. Our last guest is Dan Slater, Controller for Lyon County and he is here to answer your questions about the 2012 County budget or other related issues. Submit your questions now and we will get to as many as possible. Let's get started with the first question.
moderator: Where is the county at in the budget process for 2012?
Dan Slater, Lyon County Controller: We are about 3 weeks behind in the budgeting cycle. The Reading tornado, the hospital’s request for funding and to a certain extent paying off the Courthouse has set us behind, and I will have to file for an extension requesting more time.
moderator: Do you have a sense of where things are going to end up with the budget, meaning cuts vs more taxes?
Dan Slater, Lyon County Controller: I would like to see a flat mil levy, but right now we are still looking at over a 4 mill increase and some of the numbers that we are trying to put together are still “what if numbers”. I have to add that the valuation numbers that we are using will probably change before we get to calculate an sending out tax bills.
moderator: The County Wide Sales tax was passed as a way to decrease the counties Mill Levy but we are already back to the level we were at before, is there any discussion of holding the tax level flat next year?
Dan Slater, Lyon County Controller: The County wide sales tax provided $415,818 in 2009, $1,743,114 in 2010 and should provide over $1,800,000 in 2011. At $227,000 per mill how much higher would our mill levy be. That is addition to 50% of the sales tax that is going to the city of Emporia for capital projects, and the money that is going to the smaller cities for them to provide capital projects for their cities.
moderator: The population of Lyon County has decreased in the last three years, what cuts have been made in services to reflect this decrease?
Dan Slater, Lyon County Controller: 6. I believe that from my records the population of the city of Emporia has decreased. The population for Lyon County has slightly increased. While the population has not increased the demand for services has increased dramatically. While our partners at the state level have continued to push for more and more services, they seem to have a problem with funding. Notice Community Corrections and Mental Health.
Steve_Corbin: There are ONLY 15 counties, (out of 105) in Kansas that have a LOWER per capita income than Lyon County. Do the commissioners realize this? If they do, how can they justify increasing spending? I mean morally justify it.
Dan Slater, Lyon County Controller: I think everyone is agreement that we are not a wealthy county. I think that everyone will agree that no one wants to pay more or for that matter any taxes. We have a responsibility to provide services to the people who live here. I think the Commission is trying to weigh very seriously the budgeted expenditures and what should be funded.
Steve_Corbin: Gazette poll: Do you support Newman Regional Health's request to start receiving 3.5 mills in property tax dollars? Yes 27% 197 votes No 66% 475 votes Undecided 5% 39 votes 711 total votes Care to comment?
Dan Slater, Lyon County Controller: Does anyone ever say that they would like to raise taxes. Probably not. Newman Regional is a County owned hospital, and communities are judged by their hospitals. There is a responsibility to provide good medical care. That is why a year ago using a public building commission we refinanced their long term debt load to save the hospital money that could be used to provide better service. This request for funding of new equipment is much more difficult because it involves taxpayer dollars and the timing of the request is very difficult.
moderator: Are there opportunities to save money by combing services or departments with other entities?
Dan Slater, Lyon County Controller: We have and continue to have a cooperative relationship with the city of Emporia. Our commissions meet quarterly and I think there is a strong desire to find better ways of doing our jobs. Telephones and ambulances and all types of communications are worked on together. There is a problem in that the job of the city is to provide services, and the job of the county is to be a tax collector. Most of our department heads are decided by elections, while the city has all appointed department heads. State statutes govern the county much more rigidly than the city. There is also a problem in that the county now has no debt, while the city has a very heavy debt load.
moderator: What kind of feed back would be helpful for the County Commission from the public?
Dan Slater, Lyon County Controller: Many of the services we provide are for a small group of our population. It is always easy to add services, but very difficult to know when and what services to cut. This would be one of the large questions. Other thing is that commissioners are expected to be experts on running a hospital, a construction company, a penal institution, a legal office, a law enforcement agency etc. In other words it is a job for supermen or women.
Moderator: Well it looks like that is all the time we have today, on behalf of The Emporia Gazette and it readers I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dan for his time today. I also want to encourage all of our readers to stay informed and participate in the process of the budgets, it is important that we do our best to keep our leaders informed of concerns and thoughts.