Annual Budget - Burnet County

In the 2012/2013 budget cycle, Elected officials and Department heads are directed to
maintain their current operational budget. There have been many examples of Elected
officials and Department heads creating programs that reduce their overhead, combining
responsibilities to reduce staff costs, and reviewing their operations to cut out
unnecessary processes. Innovation and commitment to the citizens of Burnet County is
much appreciated.
If a departmental request represents a need to increase operational budget, cannot meet
the current operational budget or at the request of Commissioners’ Court, a formal
presentation by the elected official/dept head will be required to Commissioners’ Court in
a budget workshop, which will be open to the public. All budget requests will be posted
on the County’s website for public view.
Departments will be required to meet all budget requests deadlines and/or scheduled
meetings, to be prepared with documentation and to have their requests presented on the
required forms. Additional documentation is encouraged so Commissioners’ Court is
enabled to make informed decisions.
Salaries and Benefits: Commissioners’ Court strives to provide annual Cost of Living
increases to keep salaries at market level. The Merit system has worked very well,
allowing Elected Officials and Department Heads to award employees for excellent
service. Merit increases are awarded to each Department as provided in the Burnet
County Compensation Plan. COLA and Merit increases will continue to be reviewed
annually and will be budgeted depending on the current economy and funding
availability.
Because of the continued national, state, and local recession and because of anticipated
unfunded mandates from the legislature, there were no salary increases in Burnet County
for FY 2010/2011, and COLA for fiscal year 2011/2012 was 2%. Burnet County is
currently participating in a market salary analysis. Employees were notified that
increases from the salary market analysis will be funded contingent on projected
FY2012/2013 projected revenue increases. It is not anticipated that there will be a need
for reduction in personnel. However, depending on revenue projections, there could be a
hiring freeze enacted.
Funding for additional staffing is not anticipated. Special circumstances and requests
should be presented to Commissioners’ Court during budget workshops. Department
heads requesting additional employees, should submit a job description to HR for
classification and include it with a New Employee Budget Request Form with their
budget request. Department Heads are encouraged to consolidate positions and
responsibilities, if possible.
The court continues to support health and life insurance and retirement benefits for
employees and will make every effort to maintain the same level of benefits, depending
on available funding. Again, because of the recession and trying to maintain the same
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