Linn County layoffs topic at sparsely attended forum

County workers may face layoffs as Linn County managers work toward next year's budget targets.

“If you just try to do discretionary spending cuts, it doesn't work,” Supervisor Brent Oleson said this afternoon.

Oleson was refering to the county's new budgeting philosophy during what had been scheduled as a public forum on budget issues. But with just one member of the public attending the session, it turned into an informal 25-minute discussion of the outcome-based approach adopted this year.

That approach calls for department heads to justify their budget requests against goals set by the supervisors. The most immediate goal, set last week, is a levy rate of no more than $6.12 per $1,000 of assessed property value, compared to this year's $6.07.

That, combined with another goal of restoring the county's flood-depleted budget reserve, means department heads must justify spending more than 98.5 percent of their current budget.

“It's reality: You're going to have to assume you're not getting as much,” said Finance Director Steve Tucker.

And with salaries composing the vast majority of budgets for most departments, that's likely to mean layoffs.

“The department heads that have actually started to look at the numbers I think have realized that,” said Budget Director Dawn Jindrich.

With the county drawing job seekers from the region, department heads must plan to serve more people with less of a budget, said County Auditor Joel Miller .

With less money at the start of the fiscal year next July 1, “your ability to improvise throughout the year is going to be gone,” Miller said. He noted the supervisors will have to cut $48,000 from their own operating costs to meet their budget target.

“You are either going to change the way you do service, or you are going to be looking at cutting some services,” said Supervisor Linda Langston.

The session was designed to allow the public to weigh in on the county's needs, but with just one person present who wasn't a county employee or member of the media, that will have to wait until formal hearings later in the budget process.

This year's county budget is about $127 million, with $55 million coming from property tax revenues. The balance is mostly federal and state funding for programs administered by the county.