By Kyle LoJacono
The Hillsborough Commission has tentatively approved the county budget for the 2012-13 fiscal year without the fireworks seen in many neighboring local governments.
In fact, the spending plan is downright boring, and that’s the way Commissioner Mark Sharpe and the rest of the board wanted it.
“No tax increases and no job cuts,” Sharpe said. “That’s what we were hoping for.”
The board also didn’t have to tap into reserve money or issue furlough days to county workers to balance the budget despite a dip in property value by 2.19 percent. County Administrator Mike Merrill said sales and tourist taxes brought in more revenue than expected, which offset the reduction in property taxes.
Sharpe said Merrill, who was appointed in 2010, deserves much of the credit for the budget.
“He’s done a great job for the county,” Sharpe said. “He’s been really focusing on taking our local government from the old way of doing things to a new way.”
That new model included outsourcing many tasks traditionally done by county staff, such as maintaining landscaping at county parks, when the budget crises took hold. This resulted in 160 layoffs the previous two years while eliminating many vacant positions, but bidding out such jobs allowed them to keep services for Hillsborough residents.
“We didn’t think that somehow magically the economy would turn around and the cavalry would come over the hill, which is what a lot of cities and counties thought,” Merrill said. “So, now you have more municipal defaults than they’ve ever seen and more municipalities are cutting basic services because they bet wrong.”
Merrill said he also looked to eliminate duplications, which have helped reduce per capita cost of county services by 26 percent from five years ago.
The county administrator also pointed out that Hillsborough has kept its AAA rating, the highest possible, on its general bonds, which allows the county to borrow money at a lower interest rate.
“While other communities are seeing their ratings drop, ours are going up,” Merrill said. “So, what we were able to do then was to take some one-time money and invest it in some capital projects.”
Some of those projects include improvements to roadways. Funded jobs in the new budget include $8.5 million to make dangerous intersections safer and $1 million each for new sidewalks and road resurfacings.
The new budget also included a one-time bonus of $1,500 for county employees. Merrill said this was suggested because staffers have not received a cost-of-living raise in four years.
Commissioners are expected to give final approval to the budget this week. The spending plan must be in place by Oct. 1.
