“If you don’t save the pennies, the dollars aren’t going to come”

we are way overspending compared to forestry,” Bub said, questioning why the county was singling out the forestry department over others that were much larger.

“I think it is short sighted and irresponsible,” Bub said, praising the department and noting that Taylor County has been one of very few to get bids for all their logging sales in recent years.

“You guys better take another look at this,” said committee member Gary Beadles. He said he agreed with Bub’s comments and that he looks at the forest as a logger. He said there is significant value in the red oak and hard maple in the forest and praised the management efforts of the staff to maximize that value. “This crew is top notch, I just wish you would find other ways to come up with the money you need to balance the budget,” Beadles said.

Committee member Rollie Thums, who was one of the three finance and personnel committee members to vote to cut the position, noted the county is looking at other places to cut and that it was them being $400,000 in the hole in the budget that prompted the cut.

“We need to look with open eyes where dollars are spent,” Thums said. He said the county needed to start somewhere in making cuts and that they needed to put personalities and personal judgements aside. He said they also have to look out for the residents of the county. “Their taxes are too damn high now,” he said.

“If you don’t save the pennies, the dollars aren’t going to come,” Thums said.

He said the county needs to go into this with open eyes. “Quit with the tears and start thinking about serious stuff,” he said.

“We are trying to balance the budget and we are looking to balance the budget wherever we can,” he said.

Knight disagreed noting that because they are cutting staff and that cutting staff to meet budget in any organization sends a message to the rest of the staff. “For any employees, why would you stay here?” he said, noting it sends a terrible message to staff about how the county makes budget decisions.

He also questioned why it came so late in the process to make such a significant change.

Knight noted that Taylor County already runs as a lean county and questioned the assumption that the county has too many employees or that the only way is to make cuts. “When you cut, you do less with less, you are not doing more with less,” he said, describing the county’s issues as being on the revenue rather than the spending side and pointing the finger at state-imposed revenue caps on the county.

Board member Lester Lewis spoke in defense of his proposal to cut a staff member from the department citing Mildbrand’s goal of eliminating five positions in the next year. “I don’t know if that is a realistic goal,” he said.

However he said he felt cuts needed to be made. “I do believe we need to make ourselves leaner,” he said.

He noted that while the county is currently seeing high revenues from logging in the forest he cited Walcisak’s ongoing warnings to expect that at some point logging revenues will go down.

As far as cuts in other departments, he noted that at one time there were 70 people in the highway department and that number is far lower now. He also noted that the tax rate used to jump all over the place and the state caps have helped in that regard.

He said one of the tools they have is to borrow funds, but said he cannot face taxpayers about borrowing if they don’t have cuts too. “We have to manage with what we’ve got,” Lewis said, noting this was not the only cut that was proposed.

As far as the timing of waiting until the end of the budget process to bring the proposed cuts forward, Lewis said that he had waited to do so because he said Mildbrand had asked him to wait until the end to see what was needed.

“When a budget cut is being proposed I believe it was a violation of trust to not include the department head that is impacted on the front end,” Walcisak said.

The cuts proposed as part of the 2023 budget will be reviewed and acted on by the full county board on October 26. At that time, any county board member can make a motion to make changes in any portion of the budget before it is passed.

In other business, committee members:

  Reviewed and approved closing out timber sales 682, 697, 699 and 701with sale 701 pending final hauling. The sales total about $230,000 in timber sale revenue. Walcisak said the county is pushing over $600,000 year to date. He noted that both Taylor and Rusk County have been setting revenue records while other counties have been down since the closure of the Verso mill in Wisconsin Rapids. Lutz said the quality of the road system in the forest and the staff are cited by loggers as reasons they prefer to work in Taylor County.

  Received the annual work plan to be reviewed and approved by the full county board at the October 26 meeting. This is an annual requirement showing the work planned for the forest in the coming year and is drawn from the county’s 15-year work plan. Walcisak noted it has to be approved prior to November 1. Mildbrand asked for time to review the work plan and set a meeting for 8:15 a.m. the morning of the county board session to formally approve it before sending it to the full county board.

— County Board member Rollie Thums