Calvert County Commissioner Evan K. Slaughenhoupt Jr. [R] took his four colleagues by surprise Tuesday, Jan. 10 when he made a motion to change the method local government uses to craft its operating budget. Slaughenhoupt moved to have the board commit to implementing a “zero-based budget” for the fiscal year (FY) 2014 budget cycle. He acknowledged that county government department heads were well into the crafting of the FY 2013 operating budget to implement a change in policy.
Slaughenhoupt’s motion subsequently found no support from the other four members, one of whom affirmed the county government is already crafting its spending plan with methodology that is tantamount to zero-based budgeting.
The motion was made as the commissioners were providing feedback to certified public accountant John G. Crawford of the firm Murphy & Murphy CPA, LLC on the audit results for FY 2011. In his summary, Crawford commended the county government for its fiscal prudence and told the commissioners “keep on doing what you’re doing.”
“I’m not sure we’re as lean as we think we are,” said Slaughenhoupt. “Building a budget from the ground up is a better way.”
“I think this motion is out of place for this presentation,” said Commissioners’ President Gerald W. “Jerry” Clark [R].
Commissioner Pat Nutter [R] seconded Slaughenhoupt’s motion for the sake of discussion. Later, Nutter admitted that while he thought the idea of zero-based budgeting had merit he would only support studying the issue before committing to it.
After Murphy was thanked for his report, Department of Finance and Budget Director Tim Hayden and Deputy Director Joan T. Thorp answered specific questions about the audit’s findings. Many of Slaughenhoupt’s questions were in regards to the department’s “game plan” for erasing a $500,000 decrease in net assets for the county’s “business-type activities.” Hayden told the board a work session on the county’s biggest business-type activity—the Water and Sewer Enterprise Fund—was scheduled for an upcoming meeting.
“I absolutely appreciate where you are coming from,” Commissioner Susan Shaw [R] told Slaughenhoupt. Shaw explained that when she was first elected in 2002 she got her initial experience in the budget formulation process. “When I was a commissioner for awhile,” she said, “I realized we do do zero-based budgeting.”
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