The immediate steps that could be taken would be such things as putting off some road projects, delaying or eliminating some capital requests, these are usually high dollar items and in the short term may have to be done. Delaying hiring when vacancies occur can also be done. For the long term we may have to adopt some sort of zero based budget process that would allow the county board to reexamine all our existing activities for mandated and non-mandated services; it allows us to look at the very core of every service we provide and would help us prioritize these activities which will have to be curtailed due to budget constraints.
I would also base any possible budget reductions on such criteria as 1. Mandated vs. non-mandated services, with the probability that non-mandated services will receive a lower priority. 2. The level service is above mandated requirements would also be a high priority for possible reductions. 3. Those services that are available elsewhere in the community and are perhaps duplication would be an area of probable reductions. 4. And finally we may have to go without some services that we are used to having that do not greatly impact our lives; in other words it might be something that's nice to have but if we can't afford it we can probably lead a normal life without it.
Spencer Buerkle Benton Co. Commissioner Candidate
spencerbuerkle@hotmail.com. or phone 320-249-7206
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2 comments:
What can be done to help alleviate some of our proprety taxes?
I talk with some of my friends in Sartell and St Cloud, and they pay much less in property taxes than we do in Sauk Rapids. Why is that? Is there anything that can be done?
This is another great question and one that I hear on almost a daily basis in my profession as a Realtor and of course hear it regularly while campaigning. Perhaps a little historical perspective may help. When I was a county commissioner from 1987-92 we set our budgets so that we would maintain parity with our neighbors in Stearns Co. and that is a matter of public record. I believe serval events occured which affected your taxes in Sauk Rapids; our city has a very high percentage of the commercial tax base tied up in tax increment districts where any increase in tax revenue caused by an increase from a commercial developement goes to HRA and not the county, school, or city, these will sometime run out and we will hopefully see those taxes go to the local units of government instead of HRA. There is nothing wrong with trying to attract new businesses to the county and we must continue to try to do this but we do have understand that we do have a larger than normal portion of our tax base tied up. On the county level we must stress more intergovernmental cooperation and better consolidation of services; an example of this is the new county jail I believe we should have gone in with Stearns Co. and built a joint facility, this would have been much more taxpayer friendly. With our metropolitan area being part of 3 counties 4 cities and a number of townships we must have better cooperation and consolidation between local units to preserve current service levels at affordable tax rates. I could give you many more examples but I hope this gives you an idea of my analysis of the situation. Finally we must use those techniques stated in my blog and also make sure we stay away from new expenses especially those that require an ongoing annual appropriation. My hope is over time these type of steps will close the gap between Benton and Stearns counties taxes.
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