On Dollars and Sense

By Scott R. Cooper, Crook County Judge
Published in the Central Oregonian, July 2005

County Fiscal Picture Comparatively Bright

The beginning of July is a high point in Crook County the Crook County calendar. With its advent, we mark the end of rainy June, the beginning of summer fun with Rodeo, rock hound powwow, 4th of July, horse races and county fair all in close succession. The campers among us enjoy the opportunity to head for the woods for some great camping in the Ochocos, while the gardeners revel in the long days and hot sunshine. It’s a great time to live in Central Oregon.

July is a great time for local government as well, not because of all the excitement but for more practical reasons: July 1 marks the start of a new fiscal year.

Governments live and die not on the traditional January to December calendar but on their fiscal years. For federal employees, that’s October to September. In state government, the fiscal period runs for 24 months, ending June of odd numbered years. For local governments, the fiscal year is annual, running from July to June.

Unlike July, June is awful. June is that month when budget managers avoid purchasing anything but the bare necessities in order to avoid the risk of overexpending their budgets. June is the period when department heads that have overspent are called on to answer for their profligate ways. And June is when all the funders who have sent you money for the year want reports about how you spent it. June is awful.

By contrast, July 1 dawns bright. The new budget year begins. The coffers, empty one day before, are suddenly full again. Instead of requesting more reports, the State asks where to send this year’s check.

In Crook County, this July is particularly nice, because once again we find ourselves in a financial position envied by other governments in the state.

Thanks to some basic rules followed for years by this County Court and its predecessors, Crook County begins this fiscal year having preserved a full range of services to its citizens, having respected its employees and their needs and with a demonstrated record of stewardship.

To give you a snapshot, Crook County unlike other local governments in Oregon didn’t have to begin this year with layoffs. We ended last year with more money than we began—a step which should give the county sufficient cash flow to operate without borrowing between July, when the fiscal year begins, and November, when tax revenues flow.

On a very happy note, the county begins this year with new collective bargaining agreements in place with its two labor unions. These agreements (between road department workers and sheriff’s deputies) were reached without acrimony and include provisions which provide reasonable wages and benefits to union employees in line with those the county is able to offer other employees. Most importantly, the contracts preserve the flexibility needed by the county to assign personnel in ways needed to meet the needs of residents. Our experience in this bargaining round (which is good for the next four years) is in marked contrast to the experience reported by our peers, most of whom seem to be headed for binding arbitration or strike.


Another marked difference between Crook County and our fellow local governments is the fact that benefits costs which are currently devouring many governments are relatively restrained here. For the most part, Crook County employees are not enrolled in the troubled statewide public employees retirement system. Instead, Crook County offers a 401k program to all full-time employees. Thus, we haven’t been tagged with the terrible costs associated with keeping PERS afloat. While our fellow counties and cities are racking up 15 to 40 percent increases in retirement costs, Crook County was able to hold its retirement cost increase to around 8 percent this year.

The story is the same with medical benefits costs. We have all heard the horror stories of health insurance rates increasing 20, 40 and even 100 percent. Crook County employees, who share the cost of the premium with the county, saw a modest rise of 5 percent with no changes in co-pays or deductibles. The difference? Intelligent and careful use by employees of the health insurance plan and an extensive educational campaign by the county to help employees understand that the rising cost of healthcare affects their long-term contribution and compensation.

Lastly, the fiscal picture is bright this year because Crook County has been carefully and prudently stewarding its resources for several years. We’ve tried to work smarter, not harder. We’ve resisted the urge to spend every last penny received in new revenue, and we’ve focused very hard on budgeting with one eye on the future and one eye on the past.
That hasn’t always been a popular. Budget deliberations can be unpleasant. Everybody has pressing needs and almost everyone has a constituency to support his or her request. The sheriff needs more deputies. The D.A. needs more prosecutors. The Courts want more jail beds. More planners and inspectors are needed to keep up with growth. Health agencies need more nurses. Vocal groups from the library, the fairgrounds and veterans groups say their programs need more money. They’re all right. The problem is, if everyone got what he or she needed, the treasury would quickly run dry. Thus, county commissioners must develop thick skins and the ability to say “no” or “find a grant,” no matter how worth the cause.

All this is not just to engage in self-congratulation. There’s a point here. At this writing, all of us in this state who pay attention to politics are watching with horror as lawmakers in Salem flounder their way through a session without any clear idea of where the financial ship is sailing. Alarmingly, the Salem lot are beginning to resemble the Washington, D.C., rabble who are madly borrowing something like $1.6 million every minute to keep the ship of state afloat.

Those folks could learn something from our county.

Budgeting here isn’t about partisan rewards. It’s more about common sense. The kind of rules we follow won’t make a political textbook, but they have the makings of a good personal finance class. We follow some simple rules. We don’t spend money we don’t have. We pay our savings accounts first and budget our discretionary expenses out of what’s left. We don’t buy luxuries when we can’t afford necessities. We recognize that Hope Is Not a Strategy (While we hope things will get better, we budget as if they won’t.) Finally, we follow the first rule of holes: If you’re in too deep, stop digging!

These rules have served us well in Crook County. They make the arrival of each July more enjoyable than the last July. As Salem and Washington lawmakers continue looking for answers, they might take a moment to take a lesson from us.