INDIAN RIVER COUNTY – Facing a projected shortfall of $3 million for the rest of this fiscal year, County Administrator Joe Baird Thursday came before the County Commission asking for their priorities in helping him cut the budget.Baird and and Budget Director Jason Brown provided the grim reality to commissioners, saying as revenues are expected to continue to decline they are projecting a $14.4 million budget shortfall for the next fiscal year starting on Oct. 1. In his presentation, Brown pointed out that the county has been cutting its own budget since 2007 and instituted a 12.3 percent reduction for this year. They are still working on the estimates of where and how much they will need to cut to cover the expected $3 million in savings they need to come up with to balance this year’s budget.Baird is estimating a 10 percent across the board cut to make up the $14.4 million shortfall they are projecting for the 2010-2011 fiscal budget.One area the county would clearly like to trim is in the budgets of the elected Constitutional offices: the Property Appraiser, Tax Collector, Supervisor of Elections, Sheriff and Clerk of the Circuit Court. However, Baird said at the meeting while he can rein in budgets of departments he oversees, he has less control over those independently elected officers’ budgets.He did say that some agencies have been more cooperative than others in recent years to reduce their spending and that he does not want to penalize those agencies that have been aggressively working to control their spending.
