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By RAELYNN RICARTE
News staff
writer
Hood
River
County
is cutting $400,000 from its current fiscal year budget to
offset a drastic decline in harvest receipts from its 30,000
acres of managed local forests.
The government agency is also planning to
reduce its 2010-11 budget by $2 million. That figure represents
the amount of income lost in timber sales for the past several
years due to poor market conditions.
“We are not broke but we need to take action
now so that we don’t end up in a situation where we don’t have
enough revenue,” said Dave Meriwether, county administrator.
He said the county used to be able to count
on receiving about $4 million per year from harvest activities.
He said that funding made up a significant portion of the $10
million general fund, which covers most payroll and regular
operating expenses.
The remainder of the county budget, another
$15 million, is comprised of dedicated accounts that can legally
only be used for a specific purpose.
Meriwether said the county took $3.8 million
out of its timber deposit fund to cover expenses in 2009-10. He
said although about $5 million are still banked in that account,
the county is now deducting twice the amount of money that is
coming in.
He said the general fund budget has to be
reconciled with the lower level of revenue in order to ensure
that money is available to deal with an emergency.
“Unless something miraculous happens to turn
this whole situation around, we are going to have to cut back on
our expenditures,” said Meriwether.
Toward that end, he has reduced material and
service budgets for every county department by 5 percent for the
next six months. In addition, unspent capital outlays are
frozen.
Meriwether said the six vacant positions, and
any others that open up this year, will not be filled until the
budget crisis has passed. The county currently has 131 employees
and annual personnel costs of about $11.3 million.
He said about 10 percent of the workforce has
already been reduced, though attrition, within the past five
years. He said operations have been streamlined wherever
possible to hold the line on the budget for the past several
years but that is no longer possible.
In addition to the immediate crisis,
Meriwether said two other areas of financial uncertainty loom on
the county’s horizon.
He said state economists have forewarned the
local government that its annual share of public employee
retirement payments could increase next year by as much as
six-figures.
In addition, the county expects to lose
federal compensation for logging cutbacks in the
Mount Hood
National Forest
in 2012. He said that revenue stream — once $1.7 million per
year — will be reduced by 10 percent for the third consecutive
year. He said the program, after one last 10 percent drop, will
end without Congressional intervention.
Meriwether said the federal funding has been
used to pay for road maintenance and repairs. He said less money
means that less work can be done, although he is not sure at
this time how transportation-related projects will be
prioritized.
“An economic recession affects governments
just like it does private industry so we have to be able to
tighten our belts just like that sector does,” he said.
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