 - The Fremont County Commission doesn’t plan to grant any social service funding requests this year due to a projected decrease in local revenues.){kind=link}
Correction: This post previously stated that the Fremont County Commission allocated $10,000 each to High Country Search and Rescue and Lander Search and Rescue last year. The information has been corrected, and we apologize for the error.
(Lander, WY) – The Fremont County Commission doesn’t plan to grant any social service funding requests this year due to a projected decrease in local revenues.
“I think I’m ready to pull the trigger (on) that,” Commission Chair Larry Allen said during a regular meeting Tuesday. “Social services are not going to be funded this year. … That’s what my thought is.”
Social services
The Commission allocated more than $80,000 in last year’s budget to support social services in Fremont County, including $25,000 for the Center of Hope, $10,000 each for High Country Senior Citizens, Lander Senior Citizens, Riverton Senior Citizens, and Child Development, $7,500 for the Predatory Animal Board, $3,000 for Children’s Advocacy, $2,500 to the Fremont County Alliance, $1,787 to Historic Preservation, and $1,500 to Foster Grandparents.
During a budget discussion this week, Fremont County Clerk Julie Freese said some of those organizations have begun contacting her to ask about this year’s grant application process.
“I’m already getting calls (saying), ‘We haven’t heard from you, you usually get to me by April, what are we doing?’” she told the Commission. “If you’re going to say, ‘I’m sorry, we can’t take applications this year’ … or ‘I can give you a third of what you need or a tenth of what you need,’ I just need to know what to tell them, (because) I didn’t know what you wanted to do. I didn’t know if you were ready to pull that trigger.”
After hearing from Allen, Freese said she would prepare a letter notifying the relevant organizations of the Commission’s decision.
Budget message
Freese is also preparing a message that will go out to county department heads as they begin preparing their budgets for the coming fiscal year.
That message includes a request for department heads to “see what (they) can do without,” Freese said, noting that “the net effect of (Wyoming’s) recently passed property tax relief” measures will result in “a decline in revenue streams” in Fremont County.
With that decline in mind, Freese said the message also asks county department heads to “review (their) revenue streams” – and particularly their fee structures.
“We encouraged everybody to look at fees,” Freese said. “If you don’t charge fees, maybe you should charge fees. And so that might change a little bit.”
The message also indicates that Fremont County’s “wage and hiring freeze” is still in effect, Freese said, so “if you lose an employee, we hope you can do without, but if you must have the position, you need to outline the reason in your budget message or a separate letter.”
She asked the Commission to let her know if she should change any of that wording before the budget letters go out this month.