Washington Co. commissioners pass 2021 budget with no tax increase

The Washington County commissioners unanimously passed their 2021 budget with no tax increase, but the board is divided on next year’s spending plan and the creation of a human services department.
The commissioners kept property taxes steady at 2.43 mills next year as they approved the $104 million budget during a brief special meeting Monday morning that was streamed live over the internet.
Commissioner Larry Maggi reluctantly voted yes on the budget and took exception with using nearly $10 million from the county’s fund balance to balance the spending plan and another $10 million to purchase the Crossroads Center building where the county offices will eventually be located. Maggi, the lone Democrat on the board, also disagreed with spending $1.5 million in the 2021 budget to form a human services department that he said is expected to cost $2.5 million annually.
“I wasn’t going to vote against the budget because there are a lot of good things in the budget. But I will take the appropriate actions when those positions come up,” Maggi said in a phone interview after the meeting about the new department’s formation in July. “I’m concerned about the spending. I’m concerned about the salaries. I’m concerned about us expanding government. I couldn’t vote no because there’s a lot of important things in there.”
Board Chairwoman Diana Irey Vaughan and Commissioner Nick Sherman defended the purchase of the new building and called the formation of the human services department an important step to help fight the drug addiction problem that has been simmering under the surface this year in the midst of the pandemic. In a joint telephone interview after the meeting, both commissioners said the human services department will offer a “single point of entry and single point of exit” for people who need resources rather than a hodgepodge of various agencies bouncing them around the system.
While the number of drug overdose deaths dipped to 76 in 2019, it has increased to 95 as of this week, Irey Vaughan said, indicating the need for more services to those struggling with addiction.
“For quite some time, we’ve had a very broken system of delivering human services,” Irey Vaughan said. “This will be a new system that works better and reduces (costs) overall. We are putting a new system in place to ensure we’re spending tax dollars wisely.”
Maggi said some models have showed the new department will need 32 to 35 employees, but Sherman disputed that figure and said most of the workers will come from existing county agencies that either assist human services or are wrapped into the department. Sherman estimated the county may have to hire six new people to fill the positions in the department.
Kim Rogers, who formerly led the county’s Children and Youth Services, was hired in April as the new human services director.
“We are transferring a lot of existing employees from behavioral services, probation, drug and alcohol. We’re looking at resources and partnerships with the private sector,” Sherman said. “This will be a lean department that is tracking the progress other people are making.”
Sherman added that a human services department has been needed for years during the opioid crisis, especially now with a pandemic adding to increased substance abuse.
“I think it’s a failed policy of past administrations not to have a human services department,” he said.
But Maggi also had concerns about the amount of money being plucked from the county’s fund budget to balance the budget with revenue projections coming in about $9.6 million below anticipated expenditures. That budget gap, coupled with the $10 million being used to purchase the new county building, would leave just $12 million in the fund balance – nearly one-third of what it had previously – if that money is needed to fill the budget gap, he said.
Maggi thinks the current spending plan means the county will have to raise taxes within the next two or three years to balance the budget and replenish the fund balance.
“I’m concerned about depleting the fund balance,” Maggi said.
Irey Vaughan and Sherman pointed to similar spending imbalances in recent years when Maggi was chairman of the board. They said the fund balance is not as low as Maggi projects, but they did not provide estimates on where it stands in 2021.
They both defended the decision to purchase the Crossroads Center and said it would cost more to fix Courthouse Square’s garage and foundation. Estimates show it would cost about $10.9 million to fix the current county office building’s garage, they said, and the county could save about $3.476 million over the next five years by moving to Crossroads.
“We can’t kick this can down the road,” Sherman said.
The county is expected to pay $1.2 million for build-out at Crossroads and to move into the new office building next year, along with another $1.2 million to demolish the Courthouse Square building.
The commissioners will convene for their agenda meeting at 10 a.m. Jan. 6 and then again at 10 a.m. Jan. 7 for their first voting meeting of 2021.