Montcalm Co. cutting staff to slash $1.76M from budget

Montcalm Co. cutting staff to slash $1.76M from budget | WOODTV.com:
"STANTON, Mich. (WOOD) — The Montcalm County Board of Commissioners has OK’d sweeping staffing cuts, the largest concentration of which will be to public safety, as the county attempts to get its budget back in order.
Consultants Clark Hill and Rehmann Robson proposed the cuts that the commission approved during a Monday meeting.
In all, the board agreed to eliminate 22.5 full-time equivalent positions (two part-time positions generally equal one full-time position):

• Four in the in judicial branch to save $267,203
• 5.5 in general government to save $515,583
• 10.5 from public safety to $849,221
• Two from the Commission on Aging to save $100,000
• 0.5 from the Friend of the Court to save $30,964
• That adds up to more than $1.76 million in savings.

...The sheriff’s office is small department that covers a lot of ground in the rural county.
There are only 24 officers as it is — eight or nine of whom are contracted and paid for by local townships or cities.
That leaves about 15 for the rest of the county’s 720 square miles.
Now that number will be cut in half.
...Consultants explained last week that the county has budgeted in a deficit during 12 of the last 13 years as county leaders overestimated how much money they would take in and didn’t decrease spending to square with actual revenue.
Further, the consultants, said, leaders weren’t keeping a close enough eye on how the spending was affecting the general fund. 
As a result, the county is now some $2 million in the hole.
But some commissioners told 24 Hour News 8 Monday night that they didn’t know about the budget problems until just this spring. 
So the question that remains: How did the deficit issues go unresolved for so long?..."