County looks at options for cutting the budget

The Cameron County Commissioners Court has given some direction to the county auditor and county budget officer on how to address the projected $4.7 million budget shortfall for the coming year, with one commissioner suggesting salary cuts.

With less than 30 days left to balance the county’s proposed $69 million budget for fiscal year 2010-2011, Commissioners Court is tasked with trying to find solutions.

For the past several weeks, County Judge Carlos H. Cascos has asked commission members to offer "sustainable" suggestions for balancing the budget.

The salary cut proposal was made by Precinct 4 Commissioner Edna Tamayo, who recommended a 15 percent salary cut for commissioners, 10 percent cut for other elected officials and a $1,000 cut for the remaining county employees.

Tamayo’s proposal indicates the salary cuts would save the county $1.16 million.

The county employs 1,117 people. Its yearly payroll is $46 million to $48 million. Tamayo was not present at Thursday’s Commissioners Court meeting, but she e-mailed her suggestions to Cascos.

The proposal did not sit well with the other members of Commissioners Court, who said reducing the salaries of employees is not something they felt comfortable doing.

"I don’t want to cut people’s salaries," Precinct 1 Commissioner Sofia C. Benavides said. "I would rather see furloughs."

Cascos pointed out that taking furlough is the same as getting a pay cut because the employee will be taking a day off without pay. "Either way you look at it it’s a (pay) cut. It just sounds nicer." He later said "I’m not comfortable right now with the furlough issue."

Precinct 3 Commissioner David Garza said, "I would not support a decrease in employee salaries, or increases for that matter."

Salary increases for all employees are not expected to be part of the budget.

Precinct 2 Commissioner John Wood said furloughs are an options other cities are studying in order to help balance budgets.

The state of California on Friday began a furlough system for state employees, requiring them to take three days off a month without pay.

"I believe some municipalities are looking at that," County Auditor Martha Galarza said. Although she said she would run some numbers to see how employee furloughs would save the county money, she added, "I know that Commissioners Court does not want to touch employee salaries. I understand that completely."

County Clerk Joe Rivera spoke out against the proposed salary cuts saying he doesn’t believe it will be fair to the employees. "It just doesn’t make any sense. We have to find ways to do that (balance the budget) without touching the salaries."

"Sooner or later you are going to have the bite the bullet and raise taxes," he said.

This time around, however, raising the property tax rate is out of the question. Commissioners’ Court last week adopted the effective tax rate which means it cannot vote on raising it without reversing its previous vote. The effective tax rate is .364291 and will draw in $149,000 in additional funds – but far from the $4.7 million that is needed.

According to the projections, total revenues will be $62,006,911 while total expenditures will be $69,634,225. With the $4,293,345 needed to open the new addition to the Carrizalez-Rucker Detention Center in Olmito, plus certain other transfers in and transfers out, the end result is a $4,725,281 shortage.

There was also talk of having all departments cut their budgets by 8 percent.

Other suggestions proposed by Cascos, Garza and Tamayo are reducing the jail expansion by $1 million to $1.5 million; eliminating the human resources position that would save about $100,000; eliminating the Justice of the Peace Precinct 7, Place 2 positions, a savings of $72,000 and a reduction of the UPL transfer (Upper Payment Limit) by $474,000. This is the money the county pays Valley Baptist Health Systems to manage the indigent health care program.

Garza went one step further recommending the District Attorney’s Office cut its budget by $550,000. According to the auditor’s office, the DA’s budget is more than $4.4 million and has seen the most growth in terms of employees.

"No other office in the county has had that type of growth," Garza said.

Rene Garza, an assistant district attorney, pointed out the growth was due with having to provide staffing for the two new state district courts that opened earlier this year.

Commissioners Benavides and Wood did not present anything in writing to Cascos, although Wood at a previous meeting suggested the county look at cutting energy costs and reducing the number of contributions it makes to the health insurance fund balance by two weeks. He estimates cutting the contributions could save $400,000.

Galarza was asked to review the recommendations and to see how they could help address the budget shortfall. Another budget meeting is expected to be held next week.