Waukesha County Cuts Board, Increases Budget...

From this story in the MJS:

Citing the uncertainty of Waukesha County Board downsizing, supervisors endorsed a plan Tuesday to freeze board salaries for two years while raising the chairman's pay about $3,000 a year.

As the only county supervisor who works full time, the chairman is elected every two years by the board to oversee a staff of eight people.

Under the committee's plan, the position's salary would increase 3% next year and another 3% the following year, climbing from $55,223 to $58,586 a year. Other supervisor salaries would remain frozen at $9,536.

So, let's look at the savings of cutting the board:

Board Chair: $58,586
24 Supervisors: $228,864
8 Staffers: $320,000 (estimate @ $40,000/year)

Total for a smaller board: $607,450

Winnebago's entire County Board budget: $110,000 (approx - I will update when I look at a budget book)

The Chair makes an extra $5,000 over the rest of the supervisors. I might make $2,000 this year total.

There are no savings for a smaller board.

Chairman Albrecht Gets It Right...

In today's OshNW:

County Board Chairman David Albrecht said some supervisors complained to him about the plan because it could limit the board's ability to use reserves to fill budget shortfalls.

"A lot of supervisors are saying we're putting money away so they can't keep doing business as usual," Albrecht said.

That is the problem with this issue. People are fighting to keep it 'business as usual'.

That is not right, it is a formula for future budget problems.

A cannot say it more plain than this:

If a supervisor votes against designating the sick leave fund, they are voting to lie to the voters, the financiers and themselves.

These Supervisors want to be able to say at budget time, we have $XX million in reserve, we can afford to take from that rather than take responsibility for the budget. The problem is that the number they quote will be wrong.

As Exec Harris said in yesterdays meeting, you can't spend the same dollar twice. The sick leave benefit dollars are already committed. If we leave them in the general fund, Supervisors will want to spend them.

Spending more than you have leads to bankruptcy. Bankruptcy on the County Government level leads to losses of services to people who need them most.

I will continue to fight for Winnebago County to report it's finances correctly. I will not allow Supervisors to lie to the public.

Or to themselves.