By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — COVID-19 has made it difficult for any government to focus on efficiency, but Reno County Administrator Randy Partington is looking forward to implementing priority budgeting as part of next year's budget process.
"One of the first steps is program budgets," Partington said. "Kind of taking away just this overall...breaking it down into the divisions and then the programs, the services that each department provides, breaking down that cost so that it's very transparent to the commission and the community what the costs for the different programs are."
There are some things that certain departments are required to do by state statute. Those have to stay, but it's everything else a department does that needs to be dug into more deeply.
"What's mandated by the state for departments that have mandates?" Partington said. "What are optional services or programs that Reno County provides to the citizens and then doing a scoring system tied to what the governing body's values and strategic plan is and then taking a survey to the community, what are the most important services that we provide? Who do they serve, the size of the population they serve to kind of put an importance on the various programs and services."
This isn't just about cutting, it's also about putting money where the most people get benefit out of it.
"If a department comes in and says, I need more staff, I need to increase this program," Partington said. "Then the commission, if we have this set up can say, well then what areas that are less important or scored lower on our rating system can we cut or take away from to fund that increase?"
This allows for departments to be more flexible within a budget year, as long as the usage aligns with the commission's overall priorities.