County Budget Advocacy

By Tom Hlavacek
Wisconsin Coalition for Advocacy
Milwaukee Office Director

How the system works

All of Wisconsin's 72 counties develop annual budgets on a calendar year basis, running from January 1 to December 31. The budget process is initiated and overseen by a county administrator. There are three different types of county administrators. Counties with populations over 500,000 are required by statute to have a County Executive. Smaller counties may have an office of County Executive, or they may name a County Administrator.

In counties without a County Executive or a County Administrator, the county board must designate an elected or appointed official to serve as the Administrative Coordinator. The County Board chairperson is often appointed the Administrative Coordinator.

In Wisconsin, nine counties have County Executives, nine have County Administrators, and the remaining 54 have Administrative Coordinators. For purposes of simplicity I will refer to all of these as the County Administrator.

The process of developing the county budget begins in the summer before, and the way it gets developed offers several opportunities for public input and advocacy.

The first advocacy stage: the Human Service Department level

In early summer, county human service departments submit budget requests to the County Administrator's office. Departmental budget requests are often reviewed by a county board committee, such as a Health and Human Needs or Social Services Committee. You can check at your county courthouse for a listing of county board committees and who serves on them. You can also check with whoever runs disability programs in your county to find out more details on this stage of the process and ways you may be able to become involved.

The second advocacy stage: the Administrative level

The County Administrator will forge a proposed budget for the coming year. By law, the proposed budget must be submitted to the county board by the end of September of each year. You can find out if your County Administrator is interested in receiving input from advocates in the development of his or her proposed budget.

The proposed budget is immediately referred to a county board committee with budget oversight (referred to here as the Finance Committee) for deliberation.

The BIG month for advocacy: October

The month of October is usually the most important month for county budget advocacy. The Finance Committee will hold meetings during which they receive informational reports from the various department heads about provisions in their budgets. They will also consider amendments to the department's budget and take votes, both on amendments and on the overall department budget. If you want to change a provision in the budget, you must identify a County Supervisor who will put forth an amendment on your behalf. Then you must line up support from a majority of the members on the Finance Committee. Meetings of the Finance Committee are open to the public, and citizens wishing to speak on matters before the committee can register to do so.

The Finance Committee proceeds throughout the month of October until they have finished taking votes on each department budget. They then combine these into their own version of the county budget, pass it and send it on to the full county board for deliberation and vote.

The final stages

The full county board passes a budget in early November. There is usually a public hearing before final passage. There are usually very few changes made to the budget that was passed by the Finance Committee. In counties with a County Executive, that person can make vetoes to the budget passed by the full county board.

Conclusion

County budgets provide many opportunities for disability advocacy. Aside from victories that may be won in funding for programs, advocates can use the process to educate policy makers about critical issues and become more involved on the local level.