2023 budget message from the county administrator
December 20, 2022
Olmsted County Board of Commissioners and residents of Olmsted County, Minnesota,
On behalf of Olmsted County, I present to you the approved 2023 budget. As an organization, our mission is to provide the foundation of a vibrant community. We do that by providing high-quality service with care to Olmsted County residents, delivering innovative solutions to help improve quality of life, and managing public resources wisely.
Our 2023 budget funds will be used to make investments in health, housing, and human services as well as initiatives to maintain and preserve our built and natural environments across the county. A number of additions to the budget represent new funding streams for programs in housing, mental health, and aging and care coordination.
It’s important to note that inflation is a driver of costs across our country, our state, and in local government – impacting everything from the cost of cement to cybersecurity to health insurance. In order to manage inflationary pressures, Olmsted County has put many capital projects and equipment on hold in an effort to control costs as much as possible.
I am pleased to share more information about our budget and provide examples of our 2023 strategic priorities in this letter. For further information, I encourage you to review our county’s 2023 Budget in Brief.
Developing the operating budget
To reach Olmsted County’s budget, we add together our base budget and our approved budget decision requests (which include capital improvement program projects.) Various sources fund this budget such as property taxes, charges for services, and grants. For 2023, the approved budget for the county and the Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA) combined totals $334,857,008. Of this total, $124,046,580 is funded with county and HRA property taxes of $119,479,427 and $4,567,153 respectively. The remaining $210,810,428 of our budget comes from intergovernmental revenues, charges for services, transportation taxes, bond proceeds, reserves, interest income, and other miscellaneous sources. The county’s $119,479,427 property tax is a 5.9% increase over 2022. The chart below illustrates the tax-supported portions of the budget.
| County only | Base budget | Approved budget decision requests | Approved budget |
| Property tax levy increase | 3.3% | 2.6% | 5.9% |
The HRA $4,567,153 property tax has been increased by $632,812 (the maximum allowed by MN Statute) over 2022. These additional funds will be used for the creation and preservation of affordable housing in Olmsted County.
As noted above, the total 2023 approved budget is $334,857,008 compared to 2022 expenditures of $281,915,654.
Capital improvement program highlights
In addition to our operating budget, the county also approves an annual capital improvement program (CIP). One highlight of the 2023 CIP is the construction of indoor training and classroom space for law enforcement at the Regional Public Safety Training Center in southwest Rochester. Public safety is an important part of our quality of life in Olmsted County and residents expect excellence by highly trained law enforcement professionals. To continuously provide excellent services, our law enforcement need the most up-to-date training with the tools and facilities necessary to deliver that training. Having a modern training facility in place will also aid in the retention and recruitment of Sheriff’s Office employees.
Investments in community resources
Olmsted County’s annual budget also supports community resources that make this area a wonderful place for residents of all ages to learn, grow, and thrive. The 2023 budget includes $1.39 million for local libraries, and an additional $724,000 for other community resources such as the History Center of Olmsted County, Legal Assistance of Olmsted County, and Channel One.
Strategic highlights
Our operating budget helps Olmsted County achieve several strategic priorities, a few of which are highlighted below.
Community Corrections
Since 1973, a Joint Powers Agreement for corrections services was in place between Dodge, Fillmore, and Olmsted counties. However, in May 2022, the Fillmore County Board of Commissioners unanimously voted to withdraw from the agreement effective January 1, 2023. The change will not affect how both Dodge County and Olmsted County deliver supervision to clients in those respective communities. Community Corrections will continue to use best practices to improve the overall effectiveness of community supervision and victim services for the clients they serve. This change has enabled an opportunity to right-size corrections staffing between Dodge and Olmsted counties. We will be reducing five full-time equivalent (FTE) positions through attrition in 2023 and these changes are reflected in the 2023 Corrections budget.
Services for the elderly and disabled
UCare has approached Olmsted County to expand our existing contract within Adult and Family Services’ Aging and Care Coordination (ACC) team. ACC serves some of our county’s most at-risk populations including:
- Individuals who are mentally, physically, or developmentally disabled.
- Our senior population.
- People living in skilled nursing facilities.
The focus of this work is on prevention by helping individuals access resources, reduce costs, and improve their quality of life. This is done through a care coordinator who can help them navigate resources, providers, and insurance.
To expand upon our existing contract, UCare is asking the county to provide care coordination for an additional 1,500 individuals. This expansion requires the county to hire four additional full-time employees and one program manager. Despite an increase in staff, the funding to cover this increase is expected to be levy neutral. The ACC team’s work generates enough revenue to cover the additional staffing as well as revenue to support other mandated parts of our work in Aging and Care Coordination.
Property assessments
To help ensure Olmsted County is meeting the requirements of Minnesota state law to physically inspect one-fifth (quintile) of all county properties each year, the Olmsted County Property Records and Licensing team is adding one more assessor to its team in 2023. Assessors determine the market value and classification of each parcel in the county. Adding another assessor will assist us in being staffed appropriately to keep up with our county’s growing number of parcels.
Cybersecurity
Olmsted County is making a significant investment in cybersecurity in 2023 to ensure we are protecting our users as well as important employee and client data. In an effort to better assess our risks and further secure our infrastructure and applications, we will be expanding our Security Information and Events Management System and Security Operations Center response efforts. We are also implementing new layers of defense including vulnerability management to find exposures in our defenses and extra cloud security for our largest cloud platforms. We will also be continuing employee phishing and cybersecurity education. These investments will help keep county and resident data safe, enhance resident confidence in our digital platforms, and allow more secure, accessible systems for our employees.
Summary
Throughout 2023, Olmsted County will be undergoing a strategic planning process to create a multi-year strategic plan to set organizational direction and priorities. The goal is to develop a shared vision of our organization’s future which will help ensure we are all working toward common goals, strengthening operations, and assessing and adjusting our direction to respond to a changing environment. County staff, community members, and other stakeholders will have opportunities to share their thoughts about Olmsted County’s strengths, opportunities, aspirations, results, and challenges as part of this process to help our organization determine its desired future state. Our new multi-year strategic plan will be complete by the end of 2023.
Olmsted County government continues its long history of fiscal responsibility, with approximately 1,300 employees providing programs and services to almost 163,000 residents. Increases in our 2023 budget reflect a response to inflationary pressures while ensuring the continuity of our county’s important programs and services.
In closing, I’d like to recognize the outstanding employees working for Olmsted County. I thank all of them for the excellent service they provide every day and for making this a better community for those who call Olmsted County home.
We are looking forward to serving you in 2023.
Sincerely,
Heidi Welsch
Olmsted County Administrator
View the 2023 Budget in Brief document