Lake Co. to cut spending $3 million

Lake County officials plan to slash their annual spending by about $3 million in 2010 to counteract the recession and slipping revenues.

No public services will be eliminated, however, officials insisted. Instead, a variety of staff positions, perks and other traditional expenditures are being reduced or eliminated to save money.

"We can be proud to say we're not cutting any services," county board Chairwoman Suzi Schmidt said Friday during a discussion of the proposed budget. "We've made it through a really tough time."

County Administrator Barry Burton and finance director Gary Gordon led the board through a review of the nearly $502 million spending plan, which still is being adjusted because of uncertain state funding.

The new fiscal year begins Dec. 1. Officials actually began the planning process for the 2010 budget last December, earlier than usual, because of concerns about the economy.

"The challenges we anticipated have certainly materialized," Gordon said.

Those challenges include "unprecedented" drops in sales and business taxes, he said, as well as widely reported home-construction slowdowns and state budget woes.

Whereas the county's revenues generally grow $5 million to $10 million annually, revenues for 2010 will be flat, Gordon said.

As such, cuts had to be made to save cash. Perhaps most publicly, 18 employees were laid off this summer.

Additional savings were achieved by reducing employee training, getting a new cellular telephone contract, reconsidering purchases of vehicles, computers and furniture, enacting energy-conservation policies and reducing the use of take-home county vehicles by employees, among other moves, Gordon said.

The cuts won't be equal in every department or public office, but they reflect shared sacrifices, officials said.

"We asked everybody to give a little," Burton said.

A detailed list of the targeted cuts will be made public, Gordon said.

County leaders' financial concerns won't end when 2010 ends. Gordon said officials already are looking ahead to 2011 and an expectation spending will have to increase that year.

He predicted there'll be a gap between the county's eventual income recovery and the time spending can increase.

The board will review the budget plan in smaller groups later this month and in October. It's scheduled to vote on the plan Nov. 10.