All county departments will be receiving a letter from the Finance Committee directing department heads to try to find ways to cut costs while ranking the importance and necessity of their services.
With a two percent levy cap due to affect nearly every aspect of the 2009 Sawyer County budget, the county is preparing to take an inventory of services — which includes looking at priorities and where cuts can be made.
“If the departments aren’t willing, or can’t, find a way to become more efficient and effective, maybe we go into the following year saying we can’t afford to increase salaries,” said committee member Shirley Riedmann. “Benefits we have no control over. If we can’t find the money internally and revenues aren’t coming in and costs keep going up ... then we can’t afford to give raises. We just don’t have the money.”
It continued in part...
“It’s the benefits that are killing us,” Kathy McCoy said.
With the vast, overwhelming majority of costs of local government being personnel costs, these comments will be heard at meeting after meeting after meeting this fall.
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The Barron County Board of Supervisors approved the placing of a health care referendum on the November ballot. According to the Chetek Alert ...
The approved health care referendum question reads as follows: "Shall the next state Legislature enact health care reform legislation by Dec. 31, 2009, that guarantees every Wisconsin resident affordable health care coverage as good as what is provided to state legislators and state officials?"
Opposition to the referendum included reasons such as ...
Supervisor James Stavran agreed the referendum was a noble cause, but he wondered if it was the same as passing a referendum that asked for lower taxes. He added that more time should be spent on voting the right people into office so the changes could be made.
How will you vote?
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