At a March 13 special meeting, Washoe County's Board of Commissioners directed staff to plan for a 15 percent overall reduction in the 2009-10 fiscal year budget in recognition of continuing declines in sales tax and property tax revenues.
Those declines account for about 80 percent of Washoe County's total revenues, according to county Spokeswoman Kathy Carter.
The commissioners also told staff of individual departments to develop their 2009-10 budgets with reductions ranging from 6 percent to 36 percent based on priority.
The economic scenario is playing out worse than originally anticipated by county staff.
On January 27, county finance staff presented to the commissioners with three economic and fiscal scenarios for the 2009-10 fiscal year, which begins on July 1, Carter said in a prepared news release. The scenarios presented were "base, optimistic and pessimistic," which would require reductions to the upcoming fiscal year of $31.5 million, $18.5 million or $47.1 million, respectively, Carter said.
At the time, staff told the commissioners that economic indicators leaned toward the base case outlook.
However, since then the economic and fiscal outlook has pushed toward the pessimistic outlook, Carter said.
The taxable sales fell nearly 18 percent for the holiday shopping season, unemployment rose to 11 percent, and foreclosures increased to one in every 107 homes, she said.
"The economic situation continues to erode the tax base and revenues, which requires the County to drastically reduce expenditures for the next fiscal year," Carter said in the release.
While directing the individual departments to plan for reductions, the board members indicated targeted cuts of; 6 percent to public safety, 12 percent to judicial, health and social services, 28 percent to administrative, executive, legislative and operations and 36 percent to cultural and education, according to Carter.
Washoe County has reduced its spending by $64 million during the past three years in response to the "unprecedented" downturn in our national and local economy, Carter said. For the current 2008-09 fiscal year, departments made mid-year reductions to meet the additional $9.8 million needed to address this fiscal year's shortfall.
Also counting toward the department's reduction target amount will be the employee wage reduction of 2.5 percent effective through December 20. Also, retiring motor pool vehicles, and salary savings achieved from early separation of employees in that department, will provide additional savings, according to Carter.
Public safety has the highest funding priority, and will make budget cuts that will "definitely" impact the community, Carter said.
The board also recognized that county libraries and parks will be making the largest reductions that will have an effect upon the quality of life here in Washoe County.
"Although these budget cuts are unavoidable given the declining economic climate, we recognize how painful they are to both our citizens and our employees," said David Humke, Washoe County Commission Chairman. "We are all hopeful that the economy will begin to recover soon so we can revisit these cuts and perhaps restore some of the services and programs that our citizens depend upon us for. But at this time, these drastic cuts are the fiscally responsible thing to do. We must live within our means."
Department heads and elected officials will make presentations before the county commission about their proposed budgets prior to the board adopting a final budget at its May 26 meeting. The departmental budget presentations will begin on April 13, and a schedule will be posted on the county's Web site when it is finalized. All budget presentations will be broadcast live on The Washoe Channel (TV-217) as well as web-streamed live. All presentations will be archived for video-on-demand viewing by the following day.
