Budget Sessions on Board's Agenda Tuesday

BRADENTON -- The Manatee County Board of Commissioners will study budget requests for capital improvements Tuesday morning and for the county's constitutional officers Tuesday afternoon.

The county's constitutional officers are elected officials other than the Board of Commissioners. They include the Supervisor of Elections, the Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller, the Manatee County Sheriff, the Tax Collector and the Property Appraiser.

The budget workshops are ongoing through the Summer and Fall until a Fiscal Year 2012-2013 budget is adopted.

The Sheriff's 2011 budget was approved at $93,601,608, and now faces a cut of 2.1 percent, or, $1,970,165. The recommended budget for 2012 is $91,631,443.

The budget for other constitutional officers was $20,330,300 in 2011, They would be cut 1.6 percent, or $316,372. A budget of $20,013,928 is recommended for 2012.

The County Commission and county departments shared a budget of $356,502,435 in 2011, and a 4.1 percent cut is recommended for 2012, bringing it to $341,976,252. That is a drop of $14,526,183 from 2011..

Overall, the county budget -- excluding Port Manatee -- has dropped 23.2 percent since 2007, reflecting a large decline in property tax revenues following the sub-prime crisis and the ensuing recession.

The Board of County Commissioners and the departments it directly oversees have dropped 237 staff positions, or 12.3 percent of its staff, over the same period. Some savings were achieved by department consolidations. That includes 54 jobs cut on June 1.

The recommended 2012 budget represents a decline of $137,068,744 since 2007, when it was at $590,690,367. For Fiscal Year 2012, an overall budget of $453,621,623 is recommended.