As the summer closes, I
start the hard work on the County budget for 2002. So many real needs in Dane County compete for the amount of
money available, so I truly welcome and need your input on what's most
important to you!
Revenue from both the
state and federal governments has either stagnated or dropped, leaving us with
very difficult choices: Do we cut funding or do we increase property taxes to pay
for these needed programs? As County Executive, it is my job to try to balance
the need to control property taxes which hit people hard, with the very real
needs of public safety, roads, courts, land use, human services, and parks that
benefit all of us - children, families, the elderly, and people with
disabilities.
Last year we improved
those vital services county residents said were most important. We expanded
elderly nutrition sites, added more sheriff's deputies, provided additional
services for the disabled, increased funding for youth programs, and began a
program to visit parents with newborns to help get them off to a healthy start.
I did this by cutting other parts of the budget citizens tell me are a lower
priority.
I invite - and need - you
to comment on your priorities during public hearings in September. There will
be two public hearings solely on the Human Services part of the budget, which
accounts for half of total spending, and I will host another hearing on the
whole budget on the evening of September 10th.
By October 1, I will
present to the County Board my proposal for the overall 2002 budget. Throughout
the month of October, the County Board standing committees will review the
Executive Budget and propose any amendments to the Board's Personnel and
Finance Committee. The County Board will also hold a public hearing in late
October to provide another opportunity for you to voice your opinions on
spending priorities.
The County Board will act
on the Executive Budget during November, make amendments, and take it to a
final vote. Then I review the County Board's changes to the budget and can veto
any provisions that I believe should be taken out. A two-thirds vote of the
Board is needed to override any veto.
After that, the budget will be finished!
I have confidence that,
as in past years, the County Board and I will work together to develop a budget
for 2002 that represents the best compromise we can craft between reasonable property
taxes and funding for necessary programs. Your input on the budget is vital.
Please contact me or my Executive Assistant Billy Feitlinger, at 266-4114, by
e-mail at mailto:falk@co.dane.wi.us, or
by mail at 210 Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard, Room 421, Madison, WI 53703.
-Kathleen
Falk
County Executive