Sheriff's rescue still unfunded in next Linn County budget

Linn County's next budget is all but final - but not yet official - as county supervisors this afternoon allocated the last funds for the fiscal year starting July 1.

Funding for the sheriff's department rescue service isn't included. Supervisors expressed support for Sheriff Brian Gardner's effort to preserve it, but they didn't want to re-open the budget for one department.

"I'm not willing to open up the offers again," said Supervisor Linda Langston, but added, "I'm very much committed to working with the sheriff."

Langston was referring to the supervisors' first try at "budgeting for outcomes," their new approach to budget planning. The supervisors set a limit for department heads of 98.5 percent of current spending, including salaries, with proposals for additional spending submitted as "offers."

"I'm basically hearing from everyone, let's not re-open (the process)," said supervisor Ben Rogers.

The budget isn't formally adopted until after a March 14 public hearing, but the plan approved by supervisors raises the levy rate a nickel, to $6.12 per $1,000 of assessed taxable property value. The added 5 cents begins paying off bonds for flood recovery projects.

Allowing for a few minor adjustments before the it's officially published, the budget calls for $128.9 million in spending, with $57.2 million raised through property taxes and utility excise taxes.

The levy rate will raise the taxes on an urban home worth $200,000 by about $25. County taxes account for about 20 percent of a Cedar Rapids resident's tax bill.

With  John Harris absent, the remaining four supervisors voted unanimously to move the final $552,667 in discretionary funds to the county's capital improvement fund, bringing it to $1.2 million for the year and getting projects back on schedule after disruptions due to the June 2008 flood.

Gardner and the supevisors tossed out ideas for alternative funding for the $300,000 rescue division, from pursuing grants to charging patients and their insurance carriers.

The county doesn't transport the injured, but Gardner said the service may be able to bill for advanced life-support calls.

Revenues generated by the sheriff's office, such as the fees charged prisoners for their time in jail, must be returned to the county's general fund. And Gardner's freedom to shift funds within his department isn't absolute.

"I think there would be a negative effect if we told one department, 'If you get more revenues, fine,'" said Rogers, the only supervisor to vote to fund the rescue service during the offers process. "I want to see it funded. I also don't want to create a precedent."