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Address to the Racine County Board of SupervisorsCounty Executive James A. LadwigOctober 9, 2012Mr. Chairman and members of the County Board:A year ago, I stood before you and presented the 2012 budget, a budget that had noincrease in the general countywide levy.At that time, I said that holding the line on a levy increase would not be too difficult for2012, but that it would be a real challenge to avoid an increase for the 2013 budget.Tonight, I can tell you two things:• Number one: the 2013 Racine County budget contains no increase in the generalcountywide levy.• Number two: it was more than a challenge to hit that target; it took many harddecisions in almost every office and department of county government.Last year, as you know, we were helped by our ability to take advantage of benefit andcompensation changes permitted by Act 10—the most important of which was theelimination of the county paying the employee share of Wisconsin Retirement Systemcontributions for all employees, except sworn officers of the Sheriff’s Office. Thosesavings, together with programmatic savings, helped us cope with some significantreductions in state funding.Because the savings in WRS contributions have been in place for more than a year, in2013, we will not experience a large reduction in our personnel costs. But we do expectthat changes made possible by Act 10 will present us with the opportunity for additionalsavings in employee benefits. I’ll say a few words later about all the litigation over Act10.Even with Act 10’s changes, 2013 will bring higher costs for our share of the WRScontribution. In 2012, for general employees—not elected officials or protectiveoccupation employees—our share is 5.9% of total wages. In 2013, our share will be6.65%. That increase of three-fourths of a percentage point translates into an 8.5%increase in the amount we’ll have to pay for each employee. It has an impact on ourtotal compensation cost.But it’s not fair to control the budget simply with tight limits on our employees’ pay.We—the elected officials and department heads—have a duty to find better ways ofdelivering services. And I think we’re doing just that.Here’s one illustration of the kinds of innovations that we believe will pay dividends in2013 and for years to come. HSD is transitioning to a new approach in the delivery ofmental health and substance abuse services. Instead of creating “silos” of services thatare primarily rendered by outside vendors, HSD is moving to a service delivery modelthat maximizes integration of services and relies on county staff (direct and contractemployees) for delivery of most of those services. The transition has already begun;1