COM 0216.002 2008-2010 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

Page 4 This option was included after the departments cut their budgets ] 0%. The Administration has explored all potential revenue sources. When the economy goes bad, people depend more on Government, the demand for services increases. Unlike Business where demand decreases with the bad economy. o Mr. Yagong said, what a business does in a bad economy is reduce its expenses in two places, inventory and workforce. Mr. Hoffmann asked, is not selling Hamakua Lands more important than job cuts? Than furloughs? Than pay cuts? And suggested a priority listing of things we do not want to do Miscellaneous • Administration plans to remove the Budget Stabilization ($2 million) as revenue source and increase the fund balance by the same amount. • Foreclosure in two years instead of three will require additional staff (due to higher volume) and is now the right time to tighten up and start throwing people out of their homes? • User Fees will likely increase. The third meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee relating to the 2009-2010 Fiscal Year Budget was held on May 5, 2009 in the Hilo Co~mcil Chambers. Council members attending in Hilo were Donald Ikeda, and Dennis "Fresh" Onishi. Pete Hoffmann, Chair of the Committee attended via telephone from Waimea. Also present was Kathy Kosaka, Council Legislative Assistant. Mr. Onishi suggested, since the budget is balanced, to keep it as is. He has one amendment - to partially restore the Contingency Fund in the amount of $50,000 for each council member. This will be added to the Fund Balance. • Pete advised, this may come across very negatively, especially with suspending the 2% fund. It may be wiser to wait until mid year, right now, it will be difficult to support. Hamakua Lands • Mr. Hoffmann said, he and Mr. Yagong recommend taking the $8.2 million out of the revenue stream and offset by unfunding the vacant positions for the portion of the year in which they will be vacant. o Hold on to the land and lease instead of selling. o It may well be that the situation will continue to be bad and next year we will have to sell the land, but not now for a supposed "budget shortfall" that doesn't exist. o There's no reason to keep positions Funded if they're vacant and they're not going to be filled for a certain period of time. o Overtime funded accounts in departments other than police, fire and civil defense may be cut across the board by a certain percentage. Cutting only a portion of the overtime will save almost $3 million. o Totaling the unfunding of vacant positions and overtime savings will add to at least the amount of money we need to cover the HSmakua Lands