ELLSWORTH – As the Pierce County Board debated 2023 county budget guidelines and the allowable tax levy, two board members elected this past April peppered stau with questions, trying to understand the process.

County Administrator Jason Matthys asked the board to consider three options for 2023 budget guidelines, which will assist the standing committees to develop acceptable budgets to present to the county board with “common county goals in mind.” This is the second year of the 2021-2023 state biennial budget. Pierce County will be allowed to increase the 2023 budget based on the net new levy construction, plus a few other factors such as any terminated Tax Increment Districts and the state’s personal property adjustments.

“Each year, we have an opportunity when we talk about maximizing our levy,” Matthys said. “Net new levy money based on net new construction. Generally speaking, ours has not been real high or progressive. Some counties have tried to lobby to increase that levy cap; what we are experiencing with our workforce, knowing that we’re going to have to somehow increase our wages. It is going to be extremely challenging.”

The county’s net new levy construction amount won’t be known until about Aug. 15. However, the average five-year history of the net new levy/allowable operating levy increase dollars is $184,126. Pierce County received $219,940 in 2022 and has a total budget of $45 million. The county tax levy portion for 2022 was $20,369,671.

The Finance & Personnel Committee June 6 voted to recommend to increase the county’s budget based on the maximum allowable levy that the state will allow. The committee recommended this option because the county doesn’t have the opportunity to go back and utilize any unused levy later.

“Departments will be asked to keep budgets at a 0% increase,” Matthys said. “The county may only receive $184,000 in new money for all county needs. Plus, the goal doesn’t include current personnel costs, such as step increases.”

Supervisor Sheila Lorentz asked if her constituents’ taxes will increase, to which Matthys said probably not, considering the mil rate has decreased the past four years. A mil rate is the amount of tax payable per dollar of the assessed value of a property. Matthys cautioned that the county doesn’t have control over other portions of someone’s tax bill, such as their local municipality, school district or technical college.

“We are no in position to say that their taxes are not going up (in those areas),” Matthys said.

Board Chair Jon Aubart said sometimes the county gets blamed for tax bills increasing when it’s not the county portion that increases.

“Sometimes the county gets blamed for it, but you need to look at those tax bills to see where that increase is coming from,” Aubart said. “There hasn’t been an increase from the county in several years.”

Lorentz didn’t understand the terms mil rate and net allowable levy. Matthys offered to go over the terms with her one-on-one.

Newly elected Supervisor Melissa Petersen asked Aubart and Matthys how they can recommend to increase property taxes based on the maximum allowable levy that the state will allow when they don’t know what amount of money the county will need. This drew a few laughs of disbelief, because the county has trouble fulfilling all its personnel budget requests each year. Balancing the budget with county needs is becoming more challenging.

“If you don’t take it, you can never make it up,” Aubart said. “This will not be enough to cover everything,” such as personnel re- quests, step wage increases, etc. Supervisor Mel Pittman stepped in with an explanation.

“The county has used this option for the last 10 years,” Pittman said. “Basically what we’re looking at now is increases in wages for employees, and this money won’t even cover that. A lot of places are going up 15%, but that’s not in the cards here in Pierce County. If we don’t take this money we can never go back and capture it down the road. Our taxes from the county level have not increased for homeowners using this option. Votech, school districts, local municipalities, the county looks bad because that’s where the money gets paid into. I think Option 2 is the prudent thing to do here, to pass that.”

Matthys said health insurance costs may increase and the county board will need to determine how much “the county will eat” or put on employees.

The board voted unanimously to increase the 2023 budget based on the net new levy construction, which will be known around Aug. 15.

Appointments

The board approved the appointment of Jenny Nyueler to the ADRC Board, replacing Jeanne Schmitz for the April 2020-April 2023 term, Karen Meyer for the April 2022-April 2025 term, and JoAnn Larson for the April 2022-April 2025 term.

The board approved the appointment of Lee Wright (Town of Ellsworth), Ross Christopherson (Town of Gilman), Kenneth Peterson (Town of Trimbelle) to three-year terms on the Board of Adjustment.

The board approved the appointment of Kevin Coulson to the Parks Committee (July 2022 through April 2025).

The board approved the appointment of Eric Ladwig to the Shooting Range Committee (July 2022 through April 2025).

Temp employee wages

The board voted to amend the personnel policy to update compensation for temporary employees. At the current wages offered, the county is having trouble filling fair, highway, solid waste and county parks positions.

Pittman expressed support for this amendment when it was questioned by Petersen. Matthys said the number of temp people hired this year is less than half the usual number.

“We’ll be fortunate if we can get half of the people we had last year,” he said.

Funds will come from the unspent budgeted funds from the fair manager and office specialist vacancies, as well as fair revenue, which was record-breaking last year.

“If we’re going to have a successful fair, we need to have people to work it,” Matthys said.

Other business

The board also passed a resolution to in- crease the tool allowance for specific High –

way Department employees (classified mechanics and welders) to $425 annually, to keep up with rising prices.

A resolution passed changing the use of 2022 fairgrounds budgeted funds for perimeter fencing to grandstand dirt screening. Supervisor Dean Bergseng said it’s a necessity to get the rocks out of the grandstand area brought in by donated fill from the sheriff’s office build. Another resolution passed, this time to increase the fees for the Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) Testing Program from $25 annually to $35 per participant, and $55 for any first-year participant, effective Jan. 1, 2023.

The board voted to authorize adding a new administration human resources specialist position for 2022 at an annual salary of $82,584. Human Resources Manager Allison Preble said since Covid, the county has seen an increase in turnover, employee relation issues, leaves of absence and an evolving workforce requiring more support. This person will assist in recruitment, onboarding, retention, records maintenance, assisting in benefit open enrollment, FMLA, performance evaluations and more.