For Immediate Release:
March 8, 2010
Freeholders are considering more budget cuts
Independent panel being created to examine costs at county jail
FREEHOLD, NJ – The Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders is working on making additional cuts to the proposed $496 million county budget.
Specifically, the freeholders want to reduce the amount to be raised by taxation.
“Monmouth County ranks fourth-lowest among all 21 New Jersey counties in the percentage of the budget that is supported by taxation,” said Freeholder Deputy Director Robert D. Clifton, who oversees the county Finance Department. “In Monmouth County, that figure stands at 61 percent. There are some counties that have as much as 78 percent of their budgets supported by taxes.”
To address the high costs associated with operating the Monmouth County jail, Freeholder Director Lillian G. Burry will be appointing a special independent panel to examine costs and recommend ways to reign in those costs. The panel will be appointed at Thursday’s freeholder meeting at 7 p.m. in the Hall of Records.
“Staffing costs account for most of the operational expenses for prisons, whether they are public or private,” Burry said. “The main way of reducing costs is by cutting staffing expenses.”
The county eliminated 38 corrections positions last year for a current year savings of $413,659, including fringe benefits and allowing for overtime. Each year those 38 officers are not on the county payroll the savings increases exponentially. Next year, the projected savings from those same layoffs is $801,000; in 2012 it is $1.18 million, and in 2013 it is $1.59 million.
Among the recommendations the independent panel will study are the pros and cons of privatizing the jail. Currently, no New Jersey prisons are privatized, although Camden County is exploring privatization to address its overcrowding problem.
Spending cuts since 2008 include a 5 percent holdback of discretionary spending. In 2009, all department were asked to cut their budgets by 15 percent for a savings of $5.6 million. The freeholders also took the following actions in 2009:
- abolished Department of Health Care Facilities; transferred oversight to the two care centers;
- switched health insurance carriers, saving $1 million in administrative fees;
- restructured the Medical Examiner’s office (shared service), saving $200,000;
- eliminated the Summer Youth Program, saving $370,000;
- removed $4.1 million in capital expenditures;
- reduced overnight travel by county employees by 60 percent;
- suspended the Employee Tuition Reimbursement Program;
- capped increases to Brookdale Community College and the Vocational Schools at 4 percent;
- froze wages of 1,087 nonunion county employees, saving $2.4 million;
- laid off more than 118 union employees who did not accept a wage freeze, and
- reduced reliance on leased space for county operations.
For 2010, the county continued its hiring freeze whereby all positions are reviewed to determine if they can be abolished, consolidated or reduced to part-time. In addition, all departments were asked to reduce their budgets by 5 percent.
The freeholders also opted to pay the county’s full pension obligation last year when the state allowed county and local governments the option to reduce their pension allocations by half. Had the county not kept up with its pension obligation, the payback in future years would be significant.
“This budget is very much a work in progress,” Clifton said. “Because of the reductions made these last two years the county is in better shape financially than many other counties. However, I am confident these other cost savings will positively affect the county tax bill.”
If the freeholders make additional changes to the budget, Thursday’s adoption will be delayed, although a public hearing would still be held at that freeholder meeting. If there are amendments to the budget, another public hearing on the changes would have to be held.
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