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BACKUS - Cass County plans to try to fit the 2014 budget into the same levy dollar property tax amount the county has levied annually since 2009. That has been $20,046,613.

This likely will mean the county can have no contingency fund going into 2014 to cover unexpected emergencies during the year, nor is the county likely to see an increase in its fund balances at the end of the year, according to Chief Financial Officer Larry Wolfe.

Administrator Robert Yochum said the county does not plan its budget around the swinging pendulum of state aids, because that constantly changes.

Next year, Cass will receive more in state program aids, but that will not cover the county's increased costs, Wolfe said.

These were overview messages the county's top financial officers brought to the county board, budget committee and department heads Tuesday, July 23rd, during the county's annual planning meeting.

The citizen budget committee, comprised of one citizen appointee from each commissioner district, reviews department head budget requests, then with staff assistance from Auditor-Treasurer Sharon Anderson, Chief Financial Officer Wolfe and Administrator Yochum prepares a budget for the following year to recommend the county board adopt.

One board member also sits on the budget committee each year. This year, Jeff Peterson is the board representative.

With existing Cass property values still stable or in slight decline, Yochum said Cass's best hope now for increased valuation and tax base will come from improvements Enbridge plans to its pipeline system through northern Cass County.

New county commitments will be difficult until the county's tax capacity resumes growth, Yochum added.

The county settled labor agreements this year for 2013 and 1024, which give employees 2.5 percent raises at the beginning of each year, plus step increases mid-year of about 3 percent. The general fund half of this year's contingency fund will pay for those raises. The rest of the 2013 contingency fund has been committed to the highway department, Yochum said.

He said employee paid time off will be a major issue in the next round of labor negotiations for wages starting in 2015.

Each department head presented trends in their department and expectations for 2014.

Auditor-Treasurer Sharon Anderson expects interest earned on county investments to continue to be lower. The county earned $1 million interest in 2011, but has budgeted only $758,000 for this year.

She said the county needs to begin setting aside money now toward what she expects to be a $500,000 to $750,000 expenditure in 2018 to 2020 for new election equipment. As tax forfeitures published in April have increased from 57 in 2010 to 119 this year, she expects an impact on tax collections this year. This year, all classes of property go to a three-year redemption period by legislative change.

She said it has become difficult to find people with the right skills to fill temporary election year job positions.

Sheriff Tom Burch reported deputy response times have been cut significantly by using a new tracking system to locate squad cars closest to calls. In-squad computer connections enable deputies to do more warrant and license checks directly without going through dispatch. This saves time for dispatchers who handle 112 calls a day per station. Call numbers are rising.

More employees are trained to train co-workers, saving outside training costs, Burch said. Cass is working with Itasca and Aitkin counties to update its records management system, he said, which ultimately he hopes will save cost when a new system is implemented. Some of that cost will be paid from enhanced 911 funds collected on residents' phone bills.

Highway Engineer David Enblom reported he expects to be able to meet projected schedules for at least the next two years for road maintenance and construction programs. A new state formula for calculating aid to counties may bring Cass slightly more, but will not make a big difference he said.

The county will lose about $500,000 over five years that it used to get from a federal forest highway provision in the federal highway funding bill. Cass continues to partner with the Leech Lake band, MnDOT, the forest service, cities and townships, Enblom said.

While Cass commissioners initially have decided against implementing either the new wheelage tax or the half-percent sales tax for transportation projects, Enblom said the wheelage tax could bring the county $250,000 a year, while the sales tax could generate $1.3 million a year for a specific project or projects.

Recorder Katie Norby reported the number of abstracts and Uniform Commercial Code recordings filed are up, but the number of Torrens documents and passports recorded are down. E-recording as an option has become popular, with 200 of the 613 abstracts e-recorded and one Torrens.

She expects the slow economic recovery to mean fewer documents recorded in the near term. All back scanning of old documents has been done to 1978 and is continuing back farther. She expects no staff changes until retirements in 2018, she said.

Assessor Mark Peterson reported market values county-wide continue to decrease about 2.4 percent a year, with property sales up about 9 percent and foreclosures down 7 percent. All appraisers in his department will have to meet new state requirements to become state licensed assessors by July 1, 2019. Employees are working on further education to meet that goal, he said.

Peterson said he is still waiting for appraisal computer software development that would enable employees to enter data in the field on laptops or tablets that would show up on their desktops in the office. Currently, they have to double-enter data, he said.

Bigger and more complex court cases involving tax disputes have developed in the current turbulent market, Peterson said, especially those involving bankruptcies.

Central Services Director Tim Richardson reported fuel prices are stable this year. Cass has saved money by converting several heating plants from fuel oil to propane gas, he noted.

There is a continuing need for money to support building maintenance and repairs or upgrades, Richardson said. He is training employees to get a cabling certificate like he holds, so more than one county employee can run cables in county buildings, saving hiring outside workers.

In the technical assistance portion of his responsibilities, he said calls for computer support services have grown and are more specific to special applications. Data privacy is a growing issue, he said. He expects some staff changes with retirements.

Environmental Services Director John Ringle reported zoning permit requests are about comparable with 2011 this year, but down from 2012 when we had an early spring. Cass is on track to meet the state deadline to update the sewer treatment system ordinance by February 2014, he said.

New solid waste disposal contracts the county signed for 2013 at $8 per ton less will save the county $80,000 to $100,000 a year, Ringle reported. New corrugated cardboard collection contract negotiations are underway, he said.

Cass has benefitted from several grants under the Clean Water and Legacy (3/8 cent sales tax), according to Ringle. One of those grants will enable Sylvan Township to offer free private sewer system inspections township-wide this year, he said. Any sewer owner having a deficient system will have one year to upgrade their system.

Ringle sees a potential for more former Potlatch land to be converted to irrigated agricultural use in south-central Cass. He said he is working with the new contract county surveyor to implement a new format for land subdivision, he said.

Probation Officer Jim Schneider reported marijuana, alcohol, synthetic marijuana and methamphetamines are a common denominator in many cases he sees. The county probation officer subsidy was increased 4 percent this year for the first time in six years, he said.

Schneider reported he has had a hard time finding employees who want to stay in rural Cass County longer than a year or two. While he finds many probation officers prefer a metropolitan area, he said, "I came here and like it and stayed."

Software updates have eliminated double entries for his department. Early identification of children's mental health problems and family counseling has enabled cutting some out of home child placement costs, he said. There also is a goal to eliminate duplication of services.

His focus is on helping people to make social adjustments to turn their lives around and to reduce risk factors, he said.

Electronic payments now are available to collect fees, he said.

Land Commissioner Joshua Stevenson reported a backlog of 1,200 acres of unsold timber waiting for markets, which is slowly diminishing.

Land sales have offset some of the lost revenue from timber sales, with over $400,000 worth of land sold so far this year. Some parcels are still available over the counter. More tax forfeited land the county has acquired recently also has a deteriorated building on it that needs to be demolished before the land can be sold, he said.

As the county offers more variety of timber species for sale with the downturn in aspen sales for pulp wood, it remains to be seen whether prices for other tree species will be high enough to offset the lost volume of aspen, Stevenson said.

With decrease in timber sales, Stevenson said he expects to manage his staffing levels through attrition.

County Attorney Christopher Strandlie reported the number of case filings has remained about steady, with the exception of gross misdemeanor driving while intoxicated cases, which dropped from 46 last year to 24 this year.

He credited public education, wellness court, the safe and sober program and Working Together Coalition as having some impact on making people more aware of the dangers of drinking or using drugs and driving.

His office is part of the court conversion to electronic records keeping, which he said will be an ongoing conversion for a while and is going a little slower than hoped. In the end, it will save time, he said.

Strandlie praised the improved camera system in the courthouse and increased presence of deputies on court days for improving security. He said he still would like to have a separate entryway to his office to separate the general public from people meeting with his staff in offices.

Health, Human and Veterans Services (HHVS) Director Reno Wells said he has assigned different workers to different age groups as he sees an acceleration in the county's aging population. Medical care and food support service use are increasing, he said.

The county's outreach to communities has been well received, Wells said. HHVS now has full-time offices in Backus as well as Walker, plus some once a month or weekly services at other cities from Pillager to Cass Lake.

Technology improvements are ongoing in that department, he said. He has conducted a study of strengths of his newly reorganized management staff and will now look at ways to build on this identified strengths, he said. He said he expects his current staff levels to be able to handle foreseeable workloads.

How the Affordable Care Act will impact the county remains an unknown so far, Wells said.[[In-content Ad]]

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