"This budget is really
exciting for me. It represents the beginning of some things that I've wanted to
do since becoming administrator here two budgets ago: more transparently
articulate the policy decisions within the budget to the public and use County
priorities to make funding decisions." - County Administrator Joshua Schoemann
Washington County, WI is the
first County Government in Wisconsin to implement priority based budgeting.
CPBB co-founder Chris Fabian stated in March 2015, "To see
Washington County take the lead in Wisconsin is a true mark of their
leadership, their dedication to financial transparency and accountability to
their citizens, and to optimizing their approach to allocating their precious
resources to the outcomes that matter most and impact their community to the
highest degree."
And now Washington County, Wisconsin
has developed a reputation as best in it’s class among those PBB communities
ushering in this bold evolution. In it’s first year of implementation, the
County successfully implemented the process, and has already undertaken a
merger of it’s Health Department with a neighboring County, realizing
substantial savings. Regionalization of services and public-private partnership
(“P3’s”) are among the greatest sources of opportunity for PBB communities (at
the 2016 PBB Conference, the PBB data-mine demonstrated $409million in
opportunities among PBB communities alone in 2016).
The County has recently
released its 2017 Recommended Budget. County Administrator Joshua Schoemann
states, "This budget is really
exciting for me. It represents the beginning of some things that I've wanted to
do since becoming administrator here two budgets ago: more transparently
articulate the policy decisions within the budget to the public and use County
priorities to make funding decisions."
Excerpts from Washington County, WI 2017 Proposed Budget
This budget is another
excellent step toward financial sustainability for the County. In an ongoing
era of tax levy freezes, the resources of our citizens, and thus our County,
are limited. Therefore, if we hope to provide excellent citizen service we need
to eliminate deficit spending and direct our limited resources appropriately,
being less concerned about the quantity of services we provide and more
concerned about the quality of those services.
As you know, we committed to
a number of significant goals in 2017 including maintaining the tax rate,
reducing the need to access fund balance (County reserves) to balance the
budget, replenishing the health insurance fun and funding a 3rd consecutive pay
plan adjustment for our employees. I am pleased to report that not only did we
accomplish all of these goals but we took a major step forward in transitioning
our budgeting to align dollars with priorities through the use of priority
based budgeting. We developed, and utilized for the first time, our “fiscal
health tool” during the budget process to demonstrate the impact of 2017 budget
decisions on the long term fiscal health of Washington County.
The actions taken in the 2017
Budget represent a continuation of a plan for fiscal sustainability and the
County’s commitment to delivering high quality services, while keeping taxes
low.
IMPLEMENT PRIORITY BASED
BUDGETING
In addition to working
towards our budget goals, Washington County faces a significant challenge each
year as our operational costs go up roughly $1.5 million while the State
imposed property tax levy caps limit the amount of possible new tax
collections. This means that each year we start the process seeking this amount
just to cover the same slate of items from the prior year. Last year, we
committed to changing our strategy in Washington County by avoiding across the
board cuts and pay freezes for employees in the face of increasing health
insurance costs. We have spent the past two years implementing priority based
budgeting including identification and cost analysis of roughly 1300 programs
in order of priority from lowest to highest. The below charts demonstrate the
County’s 2016 approved spending toward our community priorities. These
priorities are fully outlined in the Strategic Results portion of this budget
document.
Our priorities, and the
affiliated rankings of every program against these priorities, assisted in the
guidance of major expenditure and revenue decisions included in the proposed
2017 budget. The significant budget changes are presented below.
Lower Priority Decisions
· The Human Services Department made significant efforts
to reduce low priority areas in order to realign dollars to higher priority
programs. Several non-mandated programs comprised of tax levy contributions to
local organizations scored as low priorities, and funding was repurposed.
o
Homeless
Coalition - $25,000 in county levy support.
o
Big Brothers Big
Sisters - $7,200 in county levy support.
o
Friends of Abused
Families - $17,800 in county levy support.
o
Boys and Girls
Club - $5,500 in county funding.
· The Parks and Planning Department reduced their
property tax levy reliance by $270,000 in the proposed 2017 budget.
o
The Washington
County Golf Course expects a profit in 2017 based on historical trends and an
anticipated boost in usage related to the U.S. Open being held in the County.
Based on this, $100,000 of Golf Course earnings will be transferred to park
operations to reduce reliance on tax levy.
o
Increased
revenues to move closer towards self-sufficiency. Parks increases include
additional rental revenues for park properties ($35,000) and charges for mowing
and snowplowing services to the Agriculture and Industrial Society ($75,000).
Land Conservation increases include fee increases in the tree and prairie seed
program ($10,000) and sanitary permit services ($25,000).
o
Reduced staffing
levels by 2.80 FTE in lower priority programs through attrition and department
restructures resulting in $212,000 of savings used to fund higher priority
initiatives described above.
o
Small program
eliminations and changes related to the Get Moving Washington County website
($1,700) and water quality monitoring ($4,000).
· Facilities reduced staffing levels by 2.14 FTE
creating savings of $50,000 in personnel costs by contracting out cleaning
services at the Public Agency Center and implementing changes to service
levels.
· Finance eliminated one Accounting Assistant position
in anticipation of a workload reduction related to the implementation of a new
time and attendance system.
· The Aging and Disability Resource Center eliminated
several low priority programs including the annual Senior Conference.
· County Clerk eliminated the customer directory and
referral program generating savings of $22,500.
· Direct funding for the History Center was reduced by
about $7,000.
Safe and secure community
· Create a 0.33 FTE Communications Officer position,
which represents nearly 700 additional hours to help avoid scheduling issues
and overtime. This change results in $24,100 of additional personnel
expenditures.
· Create a 1.0 FTE Sheriff Deputy position at a cost of
$82,762 in personnel expenditures.
· Create a 0.50 FTE investigator to work on special
assignments at a cost of $26,359 in personnel expenditures.
· Create a 0.58 FTE Assistant County Attorney in the
District Attorney’s office to prosecute cases more effectively and timely at a
cost of $48,197 in personnel expenditures.
Access to basic physical, behavioral and
socio-economic needs
· Net increase of 1.5 FTE in the Human Services
Department to create a Youth Services Team to better manage children’s
programming via cross-divisional services. This change results in $144,889 of
additional personnel expenditures.
Effective mobility and reliable infrastructure
· Create a 1.0 FTE Project Manager in the Highway
Department to provide in-house services for Highway and other County projects
at a cost of $98,000 in personnel expenditures.
· The 2017 Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) includes $3
million to support County Trunk Highway (CTH) infrastructure.
Economic growth and vitality
· The 2017 Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) includes
$1.097 million for Economic Development Washington County.
STRATEGIC RESULTS
Washington County is the
first county in Wisconsin to implement Priority Based Budgeting (PBB). PBB is
recognized as a leading best practice in local government and provides a
comprehensive review of the entire organization, identifying every program
offered, determining the costs of every program, and evaluating the relevance
of every program based on the goals the organization is trying to achieve. In
2015, the County Board identified four strategic goals for what the County
should be for its residents, and a set of practices designed to achieve each goal.
Below are those goals (the center of wheel) and the related practices (therim
of the wheel) to achieve them.
FINANCIAL FORECAST & LONG RANGE PLANNING
Long-range financial plans
provide direction to guide decisions that affect years beyond the current
budget. Washington County uses long range financial planning to project the
cost impact of current programs and gauge against projected revenues in an
effort to identify and determine the extent of actions necessary to close the
gap between revenues and expenditures.
The forecast was developed as
part of the Priority Based Budgeting (PBB) efforts and utilizes an online
Fiscal Health Tool to provide dynamic information for the planning process. The
budget team and the County Board are able to view and modify this information
in a shared way to assist in providing direction for future actions and
planning of resource allocations in a way that reflects the Priorities
identified during the early stages of the PBB process.
Prior year fiscal year-end
results are reviewed and estimates are provided for the impacts of other County
planning processes, including the Capital Improvement Plan. Assumptions are
also made about funded programs and priorities, state/federal revenues and
funding priorities, economic conditions, staffing levels, and other known
objectives. Finally, the budget team works with staff in other departments to
get expertise in developing key financial assumptions, which are used to
project impacts to future expenditures and revenues for a five year
period.
Below is a summary of the
County’s financial outlook, including all current 2017 Budget assumptions, which focuses on
the County’s primary operating expenditures and the revenues that support them.
The difference between
revenues and expenditures represent the budget deficit (reflected in
parenthesis above). The deficit identified in 2015-2017 is the budgeted use of
fund balance. The difference identified in 2018-2021 represent the structural
deficit that will exist if expenditures are not reduced and/or revenues are not
increased. The chart above has been presented to the County Board to make it
clear that there are important decisions to come, and simply budgeting the use
of fund balance is not a sustainable practice. The discussion that followed
examined several ideas and decisions points and how they impact the deficit –
in 2017 and in future years. The Fiscal Health Tool enables the County to
quickly and easily demonstrate the financial impact of today’s decisions and reflect
them in a graphical format as shown above.
Congratulations to Team Washington County for your exemplary implementation of priority based budgeting. Strategically aligning dollars with priorities is at the essence of PBB!
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