Zero-based budget idea gains more supporters

Albemarle County’s budget should be scrapped and made anew — without the fat.

That’s an idea Republican Board of Supervisors candidates have touted as a way to reduce unnecessary spending, but opponents say a so-called “zero-based budgeting process” could actually increase county costs by sucking up an enormous amount of county officials’ time.

Duane Snow, Republican candidate for the Samuel Miller District seat, said his idea would require each county department to detail how much money it needs and how that money would be spent.

“Pens, pencils, the labor … put everything in there,” Snow said. “And you have them justify it, and then you can look at that budget and see if it looks out of line to you.”

“It allows you to separate your needs from your wants,” Snow said.

Supervisor Kenneth C. Boyd, another Republican, has long favored zero-based budgeting.

“I think that it’s a good way to break down all of your spending and take a real hard look” at how money is being spent, Boyd said.

If there ever were enough supervisors to impose what county Republicans have defined as zero-based budgeting, the details would have to be worked out.

Snow said it would make sense to use zero-based budgeting for all county departments every few years. Boyd, however, said he thinks it would be best to scrutinize spending — virtually line by line — of only one or two departments a year, using a rotation system.

“I think to do it on a wholesale basis for the entire system would be a monumental task and maybe more monumental than the benefit we get from it,” Boyd said.

Boyd said he’s mentioned the idea at Board of Supervisors meetings but most supervisors didn’t sound interested.

Chairman David L. Slutzky is one supervisor who is not convinced of the merits of zero-based budgeting.

“This notion, at some level, is just empty rhetoric and meaningless nonsense,” Slutzky said. “It’s lovely for them to carry on about how they’re going to cut out the fat and implement zero-based budgeting, but our fat’s already been cut pretty brutally.

“Every year, localities in Virginia by law start with a [real-estate] tax rate of zero and a budget of zero,” Slutzky said. “And then the county executive creates a budget and recommends a tax rate, and [supervisors] adjust accordingly. So, in a sense, we already do zero-based budgeting.”

Slutzky said that if zero-based budgeting means to “take each single line item in the budget and analyze it with fresh eyes every year, in spirit, that’s a good idea. But in reality we have to have staff to accomplish that because it’s a fairly complicated budget.”

Slutzky, a Democrat, said the county already examines expenditures that seem out of line. He called Snow’s proposal an “extreme micromanagement process,” that might require major tax increases to implement.

Former Planning Commission member Rodney Thomas, a Republican, who has also campaigned on the idea of zero-based budgeting, is challenging Slutzky for his Rio District seat. Thomas, who did not return calls requesting an interview for this article, said weeks ago that zero-based budgeting entails a process of establishing expenditures that are “absolutely” necessary, as well as “ones you can do away with.”

Thomas had said that if he gets elected, convincing other supervisors to go along with the idea might be a challenge.

“I basically have to convince the board that this is the way we need to go with the budget,” Thomas had said, adding that as president of Charlottesville Press he starts his budget with absolutely essential expenditures and adds on only if there’s enough money left.

But Slutzky has said if candidates are going to claim that the county is spending wastefully, they should give specific examples.

“It’s a sound bite, and it sounds good. But what’s interesting is: I haven’t heard one single suggestion from Rodney or Duane at any of these debates that we’ve had, about a penny — even a single penny — that they would specifically propose to cut out of the budget,” Slutzky said. “And I’ve listed numerous examples.”

Slutzky cited his opposition to the county giving $225,000 toward the installation of turf fields at county high schools, especially with a campaign to raise private donations already under way. He’s also said the county should consider scaling back the size of a new 18,300-square-foot, multi-million-dollar library that’s replacing the current 1,900-square-foot facility in Crozet.

Snow, however, said the reason he’s unable to name numerous items of waste is precisely because the county hasn’t been scrutinizing spending line by line.

“Albemarle County has never done a zero-based budget to my knowledge,” he said, adding that tax increases are the easy way out. “It’s a lot harder to do this than it is to raise taxes.”

Snow, who had served on the county’s Architectural Review Board, said the board had two staff members during his tenure and would usually tackle about 10 to 15 agenda items every two weeks. Now, because of the economic downturn, the ARB only has about three items per meeting, he said.

“How many staff members do you think they have now?” Snow said. “Three.”

“I was on that board. I haven’t been involved with all of the other boards. I don’t know where all of the inefficiencies are, but I know they’re there,” Snow said. “The zero-based budgeting is for helping us find those areas.”

He said governmental departments have a tendency to spend most all of the money they’re allotted — whether it’s necessary or not. A department that has a budget of $500,000 and has only spent $475,000 by the end of the fiscal year might go on a spending spree during the final stretch, Snow said, so that the county doesn’t think it could survive with less money the next fiscal year.

That sort of unnecessary spending could be spotted in a zero-based budgeting process, Snow said. He said spending should be based on needs, not the budget from the previous fiscal year.

John C. Lowry, an independent also vying for the Samuel Miller seat, has said the zero-based budget idea could be “dangerous” for Albemarle. He recently said it could be “sort of frightening,” especially if the budget is trimmed to where services suffer and no revenue “contingency reserves” are set aside for tough economic times.

“You don’t need an arbitrary budget process to be fiscally responsible,” Lowry said.

He said that Albemarle should increase its funds by making county procedures such as zoning policies friendlier to revenue-generating businesses.

There’s general agreement among board candidates that the county needs to do more to promote business activity. Snow recently said that a zero-based budgeting process would in no way keep the county from having a “rainy day fund” for tough economic times.

“I don’t know why you can’t do both,” Snow said. “I think that you’ve got to have a rainy day fund.”

Madison Cummings, a Democrat running for the Samuel Miller seat, did not return phone calls seeking comments for this article.

Supervisor Dennis Rooker, who represents the Jack Jouett District, is running unopposed. Rooker had said at a recent candidates forum that zero-based budgeting could be a costly and time-consuming process.

This article was edited for minor typographical errors.