Conservation District Budget – Part 9 Efficiencies & Cost Savings

This posting of the McHenry County Conservation District’s budget backup documents continues with a recitation of reduced spending and increased egficiencies.

This might be considered an affirmative defense against the rumored 5% tax levy cut “request” that McHenry County Board Chairman Jack Franks has conveyed to the MCCD.

Franks has the ability to keep the County Board from voting on a proposed budget simply by not putting it on the Board agenda.

Recent Operational Changes Resulting in Reduced Expenditures and Efficiencies

Each year the District begins with a zero-based budget philosophy, where each area and function of the organization is critically examined and evaluated to ensure it is most cost effective and efficient.

This philosophy is standard operating procedure and is how the District has effectively navigated without assuming inflationary growth.

Difficult decisions and cost saving initiatives have been and continue to be made throughout the organization including:

  • identification of opportunities for shared services with government and non-government agencies that are cost-neutral or reduce costs
  • reduction in workforce
  • redistribution of workload among team members
  • reduction in overhead costs
  • reallocation of resources where they can be most effective and
  • purposeful abandonment of programs and processes

Comments

Conservation District Budget – Part 9 Efficiencies & Cost Savings — 1 Comment

  1. Can one conclude that the operating expense reduction efforts were undertaken because they had to, not because they wanted to?

    The Conservation District’s levy for the General Fund hit its maximum rate under PTELL (0.1% of EAV) a couple of years ago due to the county’s declining EAV. With declining EAV, the district was statutorily required to reduce its levy from prior years, back down to the cap. The expense reductions were undertaken in response to the reduction in the levy.

    I did notice that this year’s General Fund levy increased by 3.7% due to the increase in the county’s EAV. The total levy increase on all PTELL capped funds was $104K.

    It would seem that after getting an increase this year, an ask of a 5% reduction is not that unreasonable.

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