Local officials are about to dive into planning Shawano County’s 2014 budget, but they are doing it blindfolded.
The county has not received information on how much funding it will receive in 2014 from the state, according to Administrative Coordinator Tom Madsen.
Much of the social services and community programs budgets, especially in children and adult services, depend on state dollars. Also, the Highway Department gets a considerable amount of funding to repair and rebuild roads, Madsen said.
“The devil is in the details. We just don’t know for sure,” he said.
The county is concerned because the state’s budget included $675 million in tax cuts. Madsen said it is unclear how the cuts will impact state aid, but losing revenue is never good.
Also, the state budget tied counties’ hands when it comes to raising their property taxes, another significant slice of the county budget. Madsen said the county will only be able to raise taxes 1 percent per year for the next two years.
“When you take revenue away, something’s going to get hurt,” Madsen said. “They’re hamstringing our ability to raise revenue.”
Despite the cuts, the county will still be expected to provide services mandated by the state. Madsen sees this as a “double whammy.”
“They’re going to expect us to provide the same services we’ve been providing for decades, but at a cheaper cost,” he said.
Madsen said the potential cuts and laws against counties raising taxes is the state’s way of taking away local control and regionalizing government.
“That sort of bothers me,” Madsen said. “We know the people better than some bureaucrat in Madison.”
County budget meetings are under way, and the Finance Committee will meet several times a month between now and September with various departments to finalize numbers.
“We’ll have it done on time,” Madsen said.
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