Not an easy time for budgets anywhere

THERE’S NO DOUBT THAT budgeting is a battle in these recessionary times.

That’s true for individuals and families, and it’s equally true for local governments.

Area school districts have found that already, as they had to have their budgets in place for the opening of the school year this fall. From the smallest to the largest school districts, the going was tough in preparing the annual budget.

Add to a state budget that slashed the amount of money coming to local districts to an ongoing recession that is impacting revenues and costs and local school boards had to cut and slash to prepare budgets that didn’t bust state-imposed spending and taxing limits.

The same factors are now coming into play for the county and all of the cities, towns and villages, who are all beginning or well into the process of establishing a budget for the coming year 2010.

Add to all of the above the fact that, especially at the county level, local governments are finding more and more demand for their services, particularly for social services for the unemployed and economically stressed, and the challenge is far greater than governments have faced in many, many years.

Sheboygan County, for instance, will not be able to repeat its accomplishment of the past two years, when it cut spending, the property tax levy and the property tax rate in both years. County officials have already conceded that, despite spending cutbacks this year and their ongoing budgeting procedures, designed to control spending and taxes, there will be an increase in the county property tax levy this year, although the property tax rate might stay the same.

In cities, towns and villages, the challenge will be to continue to provide the services demanded by their constituents without putting too great a financial stress on those constituents, many of whom find themselves jobless or with reduced or stagnant personal incomes.

It is obvious there are going to be some hard choices that will have to be made on all levels. Those hard choices have already been seen from school boards, as parents and students from the now-closed Cascade Elementary School in the Plymouth district can attest.

It is not an easy task facing local council and board members this fall. Their constituents will have to remember that when they find particular services or funding items cut or slashed in the name of controlling budgets.

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