Pinellas County plans $55M in cuts
"There's nothing that isn't on the table,"the county administrator says.
By Jonathan Abel, Times Staff Writers
Published February 16, 2008
Pinellas County officials are getting ready to cut $55-million in spending from next year's budget in anticipation of revenue reductions from Amendment 1.
Pinellas County's budget for this year is about $2-billion, and of that, property taxes account for about $550-million.
Last week, county officials asked elected constitutional officers to cut their property tax-related spending next year by at least 10 percent.
The County Commission likewise plans to cut its own spending tied to property taxes by a total of 10 percent.
In addition, the county this week enacted hiring, travel and purchasing freezes. Officials have asked all departments and elected officials to limit spending for the current fiscal year to 97 percent of the budget approved in September.
"There's nothing that isn't on the table," Pinellas County Administrator Fred Marquis said. "We're looking at consolidating functions. We're looking at every other revenue source you can think of. We're looking at every other resource."
But so early in the process, it's impossible to say what will be cut.
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In absolute terms, the Sheriff's Office faces some of the biggest cuts.
For Sheriff Jim Coats, the requested reduction in his agency's approximately quarter-billion-dollar budget amounts to $25.7-million - nearly half the total spending the county says it needs to cut. By comparison, $25.7 million is more than the whole budget of the next biggest constitutional officer's entire operation.
"If we agree to comply with what they're asking for, it will have a major impact on our law enforcement services," Coats said. "At the same time, I don't intend to compromise public safety. So that's going to be a balancing act we're going to try to work with."
Coats said the department was looking very hard for cost-saving measures at the jail, where approximately half of this year's budget is spent.
Other cost-cutting measures could involve school crossing guards, crime prevention programs or domestic violence intervention, Coats said. Still, he said he couldn't envision any combination of cuts that would reach $25.7-million without cutting into the core of his department.
"When we get to that point," Coats said, "I'm just going to tell the commission that I'm not going to take responsibility for increased crime and the danger to public safety due to severe budget cuts. I just can't do it.
Where it will hit
For county departments that answer to Marquis and the County Commission, there are two tiers of proposed cuts.
Mandatory programs - those required by state or federal law - will be trimmed by 4 percent. Nonmandatory programs, including those required by county laws, could be cut by 20 percent.
Pinellas County's Health and Human Services Department has a budget of $67.3-million this year, and about two-thirds of its programs are not mandated by law. So theoretically, the department could have to make do with $13-million less next year than this year.
The department's programs include those for the homeless and veterans.
But the biggest impact could be on health care for the indigent, by far the department's largest group of programs.
Of its overall budget last year, the department spent $44.2-million on health care expenditures of all kinds, including Medicaid contributions, mental, behavioral and mobile health services and funding for community health centers.
And the single biggest health care expense is the "Pinellas County Health Plan," a $21-million insurance plan that pays for indigent people's visits to doctors, hospitals and other health care providers.
This week, Maureen Freaney, director of the county's Health and Human Services Department, gave a presentation to commissioners focused on health care expenses.
Given the budget constraints, she said, the county needs to change its health delivery system from one that spends a lot on emergency care to one that emphasizes prevention.
In a county of 1-million, there are 139,000 people who are not insured, Freaney said.
The county's indigent program averages 3,500 people a month, and each person costs the county an average of $600 per month.
Currently, the county spends about 7 percent of its health care dollars on primary care, Freaney said. Meanwhile, 78 percent is spent on emergency visits to hospitals and ambulatory surgery facilities and specialty care.
To address that, Pinellas' health care leaders, including hospitals, have created the Health and Behavior Health Network Group. It will focus on developing a delivery system to guide patients to primary care before they have to go to emergency rooms for more costly treatment.
"We were coming to you with this anyway before Amendment 1 passed," Freaney told commissioners this week. "We recognized after last year's cuts that our current health care program really could not sustain itself with even the minimal of budget cuts."
Not surprisingly, potential cuts to social services alarm advocates for the poor. Some have long complained that as it is, the county does not spend enough in that area.
"It seems as though the budget has grown," said Frank Murphy, president of the Diocese of St. Petersburg Catholic Charities. "Let's go back and see where it has grown. Let's make reductions that are more strategic and not just make it social services."
The schedule
The proposed budget cuts from county departments are due to the Office of Management and Budget on March 14. Constitutional officers have until May 1 to send in their proposals.
The proposed cuts are based on best-guess projections for the ad valorem tax rolls, which some local officials think will go down because of the slump in real estate. But depending on what the Property Appraiser's Office decided this spring, the cuts could be intensified.
County Commission Chairman Bob Stewart said the cuts will be difficult for everyone.
"It is totally because of Amendment 1," Stewart said. "This is definitely a reversal in direction of a major significance."
In order to slim down the budget, officials are likely to consolidate services. This week, county officials announced the consolidation of their information technology and information systems departments. Eleven jobs will be eliminated, and roughly $1-million will be saved in the consolidation of the two departments under the name Business Technology Services.
Commissioner Ken Welch said it was also time for a serious effort to consolidate the numerous fire departments in the county.
"There is duplication of services among counties and cities and fire districts," Welch said. "We can save money if we consolidate those services, but it will take all sides to agree to do that."
Jonathan Abel can be reached at jabel@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4157.