It is budget time in El Paso County (EPC), which means it’s time to sharpen our pencils and get the most out of our resources while providing the best possible services to the citizens who pay for them.

Roads. Deputies. District attorneys. Courtrooms. Death and birth certificates. Autopsies. Motor vehicle. Elections. Property assessments. Surveyor and treasurer services. Information technology. Development services. Health and human services. Parks. Liquor licenses.

These are many of the services for which EPC is responsible, most of which are mandated by state and federal law or demanded by the citizen taxpayers who live and work here.

Revenue sources for these services consist primarily of sales and property taxes. Of your total property tax bill, 10 percent, on average goes to EPC. The vast majority goes to the school district in which you live, a small portion goes specifically to the County Road and Bridge fund and other portions are divided depending upon any other special districts in which you may reside, i.e. library district, metro district, fire, etc.

The Board of County Commissioners is statutorily responsible for allocating the county share of these sales and property taxes amongst all of these offices and departments.

For 2012, the projected total revenue for El Paso County is $235 million. Of this, just $86 million is unrestricted general fund revenue and $7.5 million is designated to the Road and Bridge Fund. The rest is restricted to expenditures that are mandated by the state and federal government and are not within our discretion as to how they are allocated. That $86 million is the amount we must prioritize and spend into our core services.

For reference, EPC provides services for $73.48 in property taxes per citizen. The next closest property tax per citizen cost is $176.30 in Mesa County.

In an extraordinary effort to get control of a declining, unsustainable budget in 2008, we began a three-year process of cutting and reprioritizing spending. The general fund budget went from $105.8 million in 2007 to $91.3 million in 2011. Those are real dollars, not just projected spending cuts.

In the worst economy since the Great Depression, these savings measures actually grew our reserves and created a stable, much more efficient organization that proudly boasts increased credit ratings and sustainable services.

According to the law, we must run a balanced budget. According to common sense, we recognize that we cannot spend more than we take in. We cut programs, personnel and expenditures and reorganized administration because we had to balance the reality of reduced revenue with reduced spending. What a contrast to what we see at the federal level!

In the midst of the downturn and all of the savings measures that we implemented, was the facilities project on which we embarked addressing over $190 million in infrastructure problems for a fraction of that cost, using existing revenue streams. We reached a point where our facilities no longer met the demands of the services we are mandated to provide. We enacted a massive consolidation effort that resolved critical space and facilities issues within the sheriff’s and coroner’s offices, the departments of human services and health and more. All with no tax increase, no new general fund expenditures and no service reductions.

The county is not perfect by any means, nor do I intend to express that it is, but we run a pretty tight ship and are still providing quality services with a customer-oriented philosophy.

In the past two years, we paved and maintained more lane miles, especially in eastern EPC, than in many years past. We have rejected federal funds that bloat government and come with regulatory strings attached. We constantly look for and eliminate redundancies. We fight legislatively for policy that benefits the citizens of this county and protects local control.

While we still struggle with public safety challenges, especially personnel deficiencies within our sheriff’s office, we are a healthy, transparent organization that represents the best in local government and accountability.

Amy Lathen is the El Paso County commissioner for District 2.

Locals have their own way of pronouncing the street names passed along by Colorado Springs’ founder, Gen. William J. Palmer. Photo by Photo illustration by Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette