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Elections Office Struggles to Slice Budget
07/30/10 - 04:44 PM
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The Bay County Elections Office is crunching the numbers to cut back expenses.

“My budget reflects those guidelines, those dollar amounts that will ensure Bay County has a very good election,” said Supervisor of Elections, Mark Andersen.

At the request of the commission, Anderson must roll back his nearly $1 million bill by 6.47%. That dollar amount is about $60,000. In his view it’s not viable.

“If I could cut back 6.47%, I would cut back 6.47%. If the county says they’ve got to have 6.47% this office would not be able to meet the requirements of this election that’s coming up.”

The county doesn’t want to budge on that number.

“I understand that they’ve got issues or concerns, but I would appreciate if they would address them specifically with each office,” said Andersen.

The question is: where to cut? Each year the election office faces different requirements, like what equipment must be used, or how many ballots must be made available.

“There’s an imbalance all the way around when you look at elections, what direction you’re told to go, and do it the most cost effective way you can.”

Plus, this year, unexpected costs came up.

“The additional expenses for a 2 page ballot alone, are the reason that it went up. If I hadn’t had the reapportionment and the ballot issue on there I would be reducing my budget by at least 2 or 3%.”

Andersen adds if you compare this year’s budget, to the budget ten years ago there’s a $60,000 difference. Which he says, is not much.