Golden – The candidates for Jefferson County commissioner are clashing over whether the county is cutting the budget or whether accounting changes make the budget appear more lean.
Jefferson County Commissioner Dave Auburn said officials have cut nearly 15 percent out of this year’s budget by watching where every penny is spent.
Challenger Kathy Hartman isn’t buying it, insisting changes in accounting practices made the county’s $473.3 million general fund budget appear to have been trimmed.
“Did you see a 14.9 percent reduction in your taxes?” Hartman asked. “Neither did I.”
Both candidates face the prospect of wrestling with a 2007 budget that is being built on conservative projections of stagnant revenues and creation of the county’s first formal reserve fund.
Initial estimates call for an overall budget reduction of up to 5 percent. County staff will submit a draft budget to the Board of Commissioners on Oct. 10, with the board meeting with each department through early November. A hearing on the final budget will be Dec. 6.
Auburn, 60, a Republican, is seeking election after being appointed in March 2005.
When he took office, Auburn said he wanted to move toward budgeting for needs and not just a percentage increase over the previous year.
“We have to change the culture so we don’t have an end-of- the-year spending spree,” Auburn said.
A system newly implemented for the current budget year – called “zero-based budgeting” – has meant starting out at zero.
“Then we find out how much something costs” before allocating money, said Auburn, an independent businessman with a bachelor’s in business administration.
The result was a $75 million savings this year over the 2005 budget with no reduction in services, Auburn said.
The savings was achieved, he said, by “cutting all over the county,” such as delaying replacement of copiers and removing OnStar computer systems from 1,000 county vehicles.
Hartman, 56, a Democrat, said when 80 percent of the county’s budget is salaries and benefits, economies such as copiers and OnStar don’t add up to 15 percent budget reductions.
She said Auburn implies there has been a reduction in spending when the county’s independent audit shows a 6.93 percent increase in spending.
“I think it’s irresponsible to represent a change in budget methodology as a reduction in spending,” said Hartman, a former stockbroker and executive director of a program that helps families shift from welfare to work.
Hartman said the budget cuts have resulted from the county changing accounting methods.
Beginning this year, capital improvement expenses are budgeted for the cost in the current year and not as in the past, when the total cost was budgeted in the year the project was approved. The change reduced the budget nearly 10 percent, she said.
The county also stopped double counting of expenses, which reduced the budget by 5 percent.
“I don’t think it’s a bad thing,” Hartman said of the budget changes. “But it undercuts trust in government.”
Staff writer Ann Schrader can be reached at 303-278-3217 or aschrader@denverpost.com.
