Councilman Fralick Warns of Costs of Delay

By Stan Matthews
County Communications Program Manager

At the San Juan Council meeting this week, budget committee chair Richard Fralick distributed a chart that shows the potential cost of delaying County budget cuts in human terms. The Council is facing the task of balancing the 2009 budget in the face of a revenue shortfall of a $1 million to $1.5 million with only six months left in the fiscal year.

Because 72% of the County Current budget is personnel cost, in doing his calculations, Fralick divided 72% percent of the budget reductions needed by the median payroll cost of a full time County employee. The result is startling. The County’s staff would have to be cut by the equivalent of 24 to 36 full time employees almost immediately to meet projected revenue shortfall. That’s more than 15% of the County’s currently authorized positions.

(There are approximately 175 authorized “full time equivalent” positions in the county current budget. This number excludes employees whose salaries are paid out of the road fund, solid waste utility, stormwater utility or other restricted funds.)

But if budget cut decisions were delayed until September; the calculations show the number of full time equivalent positions that would need to be cut would increase to between 40 and 60 – roughly one out of three full time equivalent positions on the County’s general fund payroll.

Fralick emphasized that the council is looking at a number of ways to balance the budget while saving jobs, but he said, “We can’t afford to defer making a decision until we have all of the information in hand. If we delay a decision the more Draconian the cuts will have to be.”

Second quarter sales tax revenue – which will provide important information about how large the revenue gap actually is – will not be available until August. On average, laid off employees will receive approximately one month’s severance pay so there is a delay between when layoff decision are made and when savings take effect.

The Council has scheduled a public hearing and could take action on nearly $900,000 worth of proposed budget cuts at its June 16 meeting. Additional options will be subject to negotiation with the County employees union.