YORK – As the proposed budget sat last week, the proposed tax asking was $2.6 million higher than the county’s budget authority, so that amount has to be either cut or funded in alternative ways other than property taxes.
The budget as a whole is a result of proposed budgets submitted by department heads and elected officials, and the tax asking is high due to higher costs and new requests. The commissioners have also said they would like to have less reliance on the inheritance tax fund, if possible.
County attorney budget discussion
In talking with York County Attorney Gary Olson, they went through the nearly $800,000 proposed budget, with Olson saying he could hold off on hiring another office assistant as he had proposed doing, so that would cut about $48,000.
“And then there are all the costs I have zero control over, like autopsies and court costs. You could put those in another fund and that would greatly cut my budget down. We still need four full-time attorneys so we can put in the number of hours we have been,” Olson said. “We have a lot of trials in county court, here, on traffic tickets and we have had five trials in district court in the last year. The need for the four attorneys is very apparent. There are lawyers who want these jobs, they want to work in York County. And the other issue is I wasn’t anticipating a vacancy in September so I’ll need to fill that.”
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“How does putting the budget for autopsies in another fund instead of your budget help us with the budget overall?” Commissioner Randy Obermier asked Olson. “That would just make your budget look better and you have to authorize those.”
“Well, it’s difficult for me to predict that number,” Olson said.
“And us as well,” Obermier responded.
“Those should be in your budget,” Commissioner Andy Bowman said to Olson. “I agree you need three attorneys, could the fourth be a person who does that part-time and then maybe work in another department like Nathan (Heinz) does with zoning?”
“I hear his plea but I don’t see us jumping there in this year,” Commissioner Chairman Daniel Grotz said. “I have no problem making the other two attorneys full-time and then he (Olson) being the third attorney.”
“The wages in that office have exploded over the past few years and that has to slow down,” Obermier said.
“Fair,” Olson responded.
Obermier also noted how the diversion program used to be run by just one person and now there are five people working in that department.
Meanwhile, crime continues to increase and be a problem in York County.
“How do we get ahead of our expanding crime problem?” Bowman asked. “How do we do that? We are seeing the same people back in the system all the time – we’ve seen the same guy, as an example, back in court four times in one year. I don’t know what the issue is, but how do we make York County safer and start plateauing these costs? The real cost is what we are deciding here and we have no relief from. We are funding nice tourism projects and things like that, but I sure wish we could use lodging tax money for the county attorney and the sheriff’s office. I’d rather see more deputies and attorneys than a motorgrader at the roads department – that’s where I am at, at this point. What is the point of a good road if you can’t drive on it due to drunk drivers, or a pretty mural when you can’t stop to look at it because you might get mugged? And then think about all the bills we pay for outside appointed attorneys – we have 12-15 attorneys at a time running against our 2 ½ attorneys in the county attorney’s office.”
“We just have to make decisions we can afford,” Obermier said. “I can’t see cutting the roads department in half for more attorneys.”
“I was just using that as an example,” Bowman said.
“I think saying yes, you can have one more attorney, I think that’s something,” Obermier said. “I think we are trying to make a step in the right direction.”
“We are not keeping our heads above water now in the county attorney’s office and I don’t think just one more attorney is going to help that,” Bowman said.
“It’s hard to ask for more productivity out of people, but at this point, that’s what we are doing,” Grotz said.
Sheriff’s office staffing and overtime
The commissioners then had a conversation with York County Sheriff Paul Vrbka, Captain Josh Gillespie and Lt. Alex Hildebrand regarding that department’s budget.
“In an earlier conversation with them, we heard how overtime has been an issue,” Obermier said. “They will try to curb some of that and hiring another deputy could be paid for by the money saved from not being spent on overtime.”
“There are a couple of reasons we are wanting to hire another deputy, one being the calls to service,” Captain Gillespie said. “The calls to service numbered 6,500 in 2021 and that number went to 10,700 last year. Our overtime is through the roof now, so with another person there would be cost savings. Also, we need extra patrol as the state patrol is currently short on staff and those calls have to go somewhere. And our federal funds are getting lower so we need to start working all our vehicles back into the budget – and we need three vehicles a year and we want to get the most out of our vehicles and equipment as we possibly can.”
Obermier said a transfer could be done from the inheritance fund to help with the vehicle rotation costs to offset the federal forfeiture deficits.
Gillespie said once given the go-ahead, they would begin the search for the new deputy immediately.
“With Interstate 80, if we get a call, we have to go if there is no trooper in the area,” Sheriff Vrbka said. “We can’t ignore the interstate complaints. And out there, the traffic is so high and there is the criminal element out there. It’s just one of the things we have to deal with.”
“I-80, though, is a portion of what we do,” Hildebrand said. “Everyone is spread too thin in different corners of the county and we can’t plan for what the calls are and where they are. And yes, as you were saying about the courts, yes, we are seeing the same names over and over, and yes, those people are York County residents.”
Possible lodging tax legislation
Obermier said as a side note that he would be introducing to the Nebraska Association of County Officials proposed legislation would create an extra 2% lodging tax which counties could use for law enforcement efforts.
Editor’s note: The next installment will focus on the other departments within the county.
