ShawneeDispatch.com

The proposed 2009 budget for Johnson County Government holds the line on mill levy rates for next year.

The county's proposed budget plan for next year totals $738.2 million, including expenditures of $628 million and reserves of $110.2 million. The new proposed budget, which is slightly more than the current $735.3 million budget, funds more than 40 departments and agencies that comprise Johnson County Government.

The proposed budget was drafted without an increase in the county's current taxing levy at 23.242 mills.

The spending proposal for next year was unveiled earlier this month by County Manager Michael B. Press and Scott Neufeld, director of the Budget and Financial Planning Department.

The county manager said the impact of public safety on the rest of county government was "substantial," noting that "current public safety expenditures overshadow what is spent on the remaining services" provided by the county.

The impact involves the current expansion and future operation of the Johnson County Adult Detention Center at the New Century AirCenter near Gardner. The project is scheduled for completion next year. The county also is planning to build a new Juvenile Services Complex in Olathe, which is expected to start next year, and expansion of intake and booking expansion at the Adult Detention Center in downtown Olathe.

The county manager said his proposed budget plan was more difficult than past budgets in light of numerous economic challenges.

"The economic slowdown reduced the growth rate in Johnson County's assessed valuation to below 1.1 percent, which was less than one-fifth of the average annual growth rate of the past five years," he said, adding the downturn in the local housing market and slowed appraised valuation growth is expected to continue into next year, affecting the county's budgets in 2010 and 2011.

The instability of the housing market also has resulted in a decrease in mortgage registration fees, another major source of revenue collected by the county.

The proposed 2009 budget lists a proposed Capital Improvement Program (CIP) totaling $153 million, including:

¢ $15.4 million for the County Assistance Road System (CARS) program;

¢ $2.3 million for the county's Bridge, Road, and Culvert Program;

¢ $11.7 million for the county's Stormwater Management Program; and,

¢ $4.2 million for land acquisition and capital improvements and $1 million for the Okun Fieldhouse Expansion in Shawnee by the Johnson County Park and Recreation District.

The new budget plan, as now proposed, will add 11.95 new full-time employees to the county's payroll for a maximum total of 4,114 employees.

County commissioners now will review the budget proposal and meet with county departments and agencies in a series of hearings from through June 26. The Board is scheduled to complete the county's 2009 proposed budget on July 10 for legal publication July 17. Following legal publication, the county cannot, by law, increase the amount of the budgeted expenditures, but can decrease the amount of the operating budget or taxing level in final approval by the Board.

The public hearing on the new county budget will occur at 7 p.m. Monday, July 28, in the Board's Hearing Room located on the third floor of the Johnson County Administration Building, 111 South Cherry Street, in downtown Olathe.

The Board is scheduled to adopt the budget resolution during its Aug. 14 business session beginning at 9:30 a.m. in the Hearing Room. According to state statute, the county's new budget must be approved and filed with the County Clerk by Aug. 25.