LAKEWOOD - It's going to hurt this year.
Those were Fred Croscut's words Wednesday at a town hall meeting held in the village of Lakewood.
Croscut, R-Sherman and the County Legislature's chairman, kicked off the meeting by addressing the issue currently weighing most on everyone's minds - the 2011 budget.
Three things are for sure, according to Croscut, there will be cuts to county services, cuts to personnel and a tax increase.
"We know there will be cuts in county government," Croscut said. "You may have questions on that. We don't know the cuts, but there will be cuts. We've already had retirements and I will safely say there will be a tax increase. How much, I don't know."
Of the retirements, Croscut said around 70 people have opted to take the early retirement incentive which the county offered in recent months. Of those 70 positions, Croscut said that "no more than half" are expected to be replaced.
The Sherman Republican went on to say that the legislature has so far met with County Executive Greg Edwards to discuss the capital projects portion of the budget. Each year, $1.5 million is set aside for capital projects. During the legislature meeting last month, legislators expressed interest in using money from the capital projects fund to address the 2011 budget deficit.
"Is there some light at the end of the tunnel where eventually we can turn this around?" Croscut questioned. "Somewhere we've got to see some light."
The public forum on county issues Wednesday was the second organized by the legislature's Republican caucus.
"We developed this idea several months ago when we were establishing our goals and objectives for the year," said Majority Leader John Runkle, R-Stockton. "During that time, we decided it would be a good idea to have town hall meetings both in the north and the south ends of the county. We also decided that these meetings would provide an excellent opportunity for county residents to air their opinions and concerns in an open public forum.
"The purpose of this meeting is fact-finding in nature," Runkle continued. "We want to hear what each one of you has to say about county government and how we might make county government better. In doing so, we fully understand that the decisions made in county government are ultimately ours to make. However, we also realize that we work for you people and we have to ultimately be responsible to you the people. Our intent is to be open and forthright with you."
