| Big Radio News |
Rock County officials tabled a resolution that would cut off county spending on charitable contributions to local nonprofits. The resolution could return next month to face reshaping.
The county board was slated to take up a resolution Thursday that would kill a county framework called the Community Agency Initiatives Policy. The rule allows the county to make charitable contributions to nonprofits.
Supervisor Mike Schwarz sponsored a resolution that says the county should get out of the business of awarding charitable contributions to private groups using levy money. Schwarz brought up the cuts during budget talks last year. He pointed out while proposing the resolution at a county staff committee meeting that the county enters a new budget cycle this summer already more than $6 million in the red. And that figure only factors in the cost overrun on employee insurance and the burden of floating the county’s financially struggling Rock Haven nursing home.
This week, the county board’s staff committee tabled Schwarz’s resolution until late May. Some on the committee want a resolution that instead would refine the process for how the county vets the nonprofits it contributes to.
Now, there’s no cap on county spending, but county policy requires applicants to show how much money they’d need and what they’d spend it on.
Some county board members on the staff committee say they want to take time to learn what value nonprofits paid through the charity funds bring to the county before they’d decide whether to throw out the county’s giving policy.
Staff committee and county board member Bill Wilson points out that local nonprofits like Court Appointed Advocates of Rock County who get county charity dollars do work that would be difficult for the county or another group to duplicate.
