County Nullification

It seems awfully early for this, but the 2011 Brown County budget is already in the news. From the Press Gazette:

Brown County Board Vice Chairwoman Mary Scray said the 2011 county budget, likely to be tighter than this year's, calls for a contingency plan if state and federal aids continue to drop.

Scray wants department directors to prepare budget cut alternatives that would reduce their proposals by 10 percent so the County Board has options when it votes on a new budget.

The story notes that Scray is not the only one concerned and County Executive Tom Hinz, "expects the 2011 county budget to force more difficult decisions than the current budget did."

The article ended with this slightly provocative thought:

Scray said mandated state programs aren't excluded from the list of possible cuts, and she plans to investigate those guidelines."What happens if we don't do a state-mandated program?" Scray said. "What's the penalty? In my opinion, if a department thinks an unmandated program is more important than a mandated one, let's go from there. Is the juice worth the squeeze?"