County Lines – December, 2008

Welcome to my periodic newsletter about items of concern to Jefferson County residents.  If you received this by forward, and want to subscribe regularly, please click here.  To unsubscribe, see the bottom of this email.  In this issue:

·        County Budget

·        Metro Mayors FastTracks Committee

·        “Commissioner of the Year”

·        Happy Holidays

County Budget

As I write this, the news is reporting extremely difficult budget news for the state. We have just completed the budget for Jefferson County for 2009, and I am pleased to say that Jeffco is not facing the same level of problems as the state. Our budget is primarily dependent on property taxes, which are re-assessed every two years. This year is what is known as a “non-assessment year,” meaning you will be taxed on the same assessed value as you were last year. That means our revenue is about the same as last year, but we put aside money last year to allow for some increased costs and employee raises next year. Raises will be modest, generally in the range of 3%. We were also able to restore a 2% match to our sheriff’s deputies retirement that we cut last year, partially funded by other cuts in the sheriff’s budget. Our sheriff deputies have among the lowest retirement benefits of any police force in the metro area, which was beginning to cause significant retention problems.) 

Although we have the legal authority to increase the mill levy by about 1.6 mills (because of temporary reductions from previous years), we have chosen to hold the mill levy (and therefore your property taxes) level. (A mill costs you about $8 per year per $100,000 in home valuation.)  A few departments, most notably Human Services, are spending down prior year surpluses in order to meet the needs of individuals and family suffering from the economic downturn. But I believe it is important, in these difficult economic times for so many families, to not increase taxes. So we are spending some of our reserves to provide some needed services. 

Metro Mayors’ FastTracks Committee

The Metro Area Mayors have formed a small committee to review FastTracks budget problems and to suggest alternatives.  I have been asked to represent the Metro Area County Commissioners on this Task Force.  So far, I have gotten an incredible education on the challenges and complexities of this project.  It is also clear that cities’ that have lines slated for completion later in the process are extremely anxious that their communities not continue to pay FastTracks sales taxes without getting the transit lines they were promised.  We are hopeful that some “outside the box” ideas may help solve some of the funding challenges.  We are also hoping the promised Economic Stimulus package will provide some significant help.  The Task Force is scheduled to complete its work and make recommendations by February 2009; I will report more in the coming months.

Colorado Weed Management Association Names Me Commissioner of the Year

I was honored for my work in bringing both attention and some actual weed pulling to the issue of noxious weeds by the Colorado Weed Management Association.  This was a surprise – I didn’t even know I had been nominated.  Special thanks go to Cathy Shelton of The Evergreen Naturalists Audubon Society for the nomination.  For more information, click here.

Thank you for reading.  In these challenging times, may you hold your loved ones close, may you celebrate the wonder of the season, and may you have a prosperous New Year.

I Welcome your Input and Comments:

Contact me at Kathy@kathyhartman.org or at khartman@jeffco.us (an official County email address – no blatantly political items, please.).  Thanks for your interest.