COUNCIL BLUFFS — Pottawattamie County Chairman Melvyn Houser has said the real budgeting doesn't start until you begin to look at "pennies on the levy."
The real budgeting must have started Friday when the Board of Supervisors met to look at a budget draft for fiscal year 2013, which begins July 1.
The budget must be certified and to the state by March 15.
The draft did not include increases to any tax levies — except for the mental health and developmentally disabled services fund, which would rise from $1.03 to $1.14 per $1,000 of taxable property valuation.
Even that is not a guaranteed number, as the board said it would meet with Community Services Director Suzanne Watson next week to discuss the rate.
The general basic levy (already at the maximum $3.50), general supplement ($1.98) and rural services basic levy ($3.10) all would remain the same.
However, in order to make the budget balance, the draft calls for removing $169,005 for roads from the general basic fund and $389,113 for roads in the rural basic fund. The $558,118 in reductions caused concern among board members.
"My concern is that every road east of the Loess Hills will be neglected if we lower (the roads fund) too much," Supervisor Loren Knauss said.
To make up the $389,113 in the rural basic fund, the county would have to raise the tax levy — paid only by county residents who do not reside within the limits of a city — by 27 cents per $1,000 of taxable valuation.
County Engineer John Rasmussen is expected to meet with the board Monday to further discuss his roads budget.
If the budget is cut, the secondary roads fund's ending budget on June 30, 2013, would still be almost $2 million.
That cushion could be important in coming years as repair costs mount from the Missouri River flood last year. How much funding the county will get from the Federal Emergency Management Agency remains unknown.
The County Board will hold another budget study session at 10:30 a.m. Monday in the supervisors' hearing room at the Pottawattamie County Courthouse.
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