Hamilton County Auditor Dusty Rhodes thinks the county's gloom-and-doom warnings about next year's budget are politically motivated.

        County Administrator David Krings told commissioners two weeks ago that if two special levies — one for health care for the poor, and a second for special services for children — fail in November, every department in the county would be affected.

Rhodes

        Mr. Krings asked each department to prepare contingency budgets that would reduce spending by 20 percent.

        Mr. Rhodes said in an April 19 letter to Mr. Krings that the auditor would not participate in the “hypothetical exercise.”

        “Your request that we prepare a budget reduced by 20 percent appears to be an attempt to manipulate voters into support for the two tax levies,” Mr. Rhodes' letter says. “Should the voters reject either levy, they will be passing judgment on the services those specific levies underwrite, not the rest of county government.”

Krings

        Mr. Krings said his request for budget reductions are cold reality, not political grandstanding. With less money coming in from the state government, perhaps $5 million less than last year, lost levies could mean a $70 million budget deficit, he said.

        “My reports to the board are based on facts as they are, without political motivation,” Mr. Krings said.

        “There are items in those levies that are required to be funded somewhere. If the levies fail, the only other somewhere is the county's general fund — which would affect all the other departments.”

        Mr. Rhodes said his office has returned $2 million in unspent cash to the general fund over the past 10 years. He said there is no way to further reduce his budget — or he would have already done so.

        “Those levies are designated to specific services, and I don't know how you can put everyone else into the jackpot,” Mr. Rhodes said.

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