Article Photos

ESCANABA - Like many other government entities, the Delta County Board of Commissioners will have to make some difficult decisions to reach a balanced budget. The Delta County Board of Commissioners Committee of the Whole met Wednesday to review recent adjustments to the budget.

Wednesday, the board received an amended budget which included the funding requests from all the departments. The previously balanced budget is now at approximately $65,000 in expenditures over revenues.

Without dipping into the fund balance, which the board said it does not plan to do, that $65,000 will have to be cut out of the budget for it to be balanced. To do this, the board said it will most likely have to cut back on appropriations.

"We're getting to about 65-70 percent of where we need to be with the budget. Now comes the hard part," said Commissioner Dave Schultz. "We're not going to be able to honor everyone's requests for appropriations at the amount requested. The board has to make some serious decisions. It might mean going over the budget line by line."

In looking over the appropriations, the board focused on departments requesting more funding than the year before, and discussed whether the increase was necessary.

"We're not just going give into the departments' requests carte blanche," said Schultz. "We want to know what it's being used for."

The Parks Department, which has requested $61,000 - $6,000 more than last year - is one area that will be reviewed by the board.

Commissioner Dave Rivard suggested the board honor this request, since the department had been "extremely frugal" and had made some significant improvements. He also mentioned the department had suffered a $2,000 drop in revenue when it dropped $2 park admission fee.

"There was a lot of positive reaction from that," said Rivard.

Schultz disagreed. He said this was the second year the board had given the department additional funds, as seed money, allowing it time to increase revenues. Now, Schultz felt the department should need less money rather than more.

"We helped them get off their feet and I'm impressed with their short-term and long-term planning... but to start adding on? I'm not for it," he said.

The board agreed it would be best to meet with some of the heads of the park department so they could explain why they needed additional funds, and what they planned to do with it. Then the board would determine the funding amount.

Another area the board may look to cut back on is in the childcare fund. This year, probate court was requesting $350,000 - a $150,000 increase from last year, and one of the biggest increases of any department. The board decided to meet with Probate Judge Robert Gobel on this, as well as Circuit Court Judge Stephen Davis, regarding the funding for the law library.

"All of these departments have done a good job, it's just that when revenues don't go up, just like a household budget, you have to learn to... live within your means," said Schultz.

The Delta County Board will next meet on Aug. 11 at 1 p.m. in the State Office Building.