NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The next Reno County Commission meeting will be next week on Wednesday, May 29, 2024, in the Veterans Room of the courthouse and will be a budget study session that is open to the public.
"I've looked at a lot of them," Reno County Administrator Randy Partington said on Wednesday, May 22. "There are a few areas I would cut. I sent it to you last week in my report, the cuts I would make to capital. There may still be more cuts I'd make to capital. If you noticed my comments, there are areas we could cut there. The outside agencies, the partner agencies, I didn't touch those. Usually, that's the commission and I haven't been told by any commissioners to kind of go a specific direction with department budgets. I would say 90 plus percent, 99 percent of them, their budgets are very realistic. If there's any changes, it's $1000 here, $5000 here. There's nothing that's over the top in their budget requests."
As Commissioner Daniel Friesen saw it, there are really only three options in front of the board, looking at the big picture.
"One is status quo, try to hold the line," Friesen said. "Another, which we've done for three years now, is reduce the mill levy by five percent. Then, an even tighter haircut is revenue neutral, right? That's the hardest, because it cuts the deepest."
Friesen wants to see another five percent mill levy reduction. Commissioners Don Bogner and Ron Hirst didn't give a specific number in the meeting. John Whitesel wants to be at the Revenue Neutral Rate and he knows that will mean cuts and he sees that as the part of the process. Chairman Randy Parks wants to hear from Partington first. In an ideal world, he'd like to stay at the Revenue Neutral Rate, but he understands that with inflation, that might not be realistic.
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