The Faribault County Commissioners continued to work on the proposed tax levy for fiscal year 2022 during a work session held at the courthouse on Nov. 9.

Also on the table for discussion was the available funds from ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) and how they might be used.

Central Services director Lexi Scholten opened the meeting by telling the commissioners the younger generation of employees have different priorities than what the county has dealt with in the past.

The county and the union representing the county employees are currently working on negotiating a new contract.

“We used to be safe in planning for a 1-3 percent cost-of-living (COLA) adjustment,” Scholten explained. “The county was able to retain employees because of our pension plan. The younger generation does not care as much about pension plans. They are also very concerned about inflation.”

Scholten then mentioned there are open positions the county has not been able to fill.

County auditor/treasurer Darren Esser told the commissioners for every one percent increase in county employee wages, the tax levy increases by .5 percent.

The discussion then turned to the mandatory COVID-19 vaccination/ testing plan recently put into place by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

Under this standard, according to the United States Department of Labor, employers must develop, implement and enforce a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy, unless they adopt a policy requiring employees to choose to either be vaccinated or undergo regular COVID-19 testing and wear a face covering at work.

“Currently this is being blocked by the courts,” commissioner Tom Loveall noted. “If the courts do not overturn this we do not know what the fines would be.”

Esser provided a projected estimate of what testing would cost.

“At this point the expense of testing would fall on the employee,” Esser said. “It would run about $75 each week.”

The question was raised on how much it would cost the county if the county were to pay the costs of testing.

“Lexie and I estimate there are about 30 employees who have not been vaccinated,” Esser answered. “So it would be around $2,250 per week.”

Discussion then moved to whether or not the county would be willing to pay for the testing.

“It would be one of the more legitimate ways to spend the ARPA money,” Loveall offered.

The total amount of ARPA funds the county is slated to receive is $2.65 million.

“We need to have the funds allocated by the end of 2024 and spend them by Dec. 31, 2026,” Esser reminded the board.

There had been some question as to how many restrictions would be put on spending the ARPA funds.

“The consultant we hired believes we suffered a substantial loss due to COVID for fiscal year 2020,” Esser explained. “That would free up how the ARPA funds can be used.”

There are still a number of items which cannot be funded by ARPA funds. They include debt service, replenishing “rainy day” or reserve funds, paying settlements/judgments and pension deposits.

“We also have to guard against inflating our baseline spending based on a one-time income payment,” commissioner Bill Groskreutz warned.

The board members then moved on to discuss the proposed budget for 2022.

“Currently, the levy amount we are proposing represents a 6.31 percent increase over last year’s budget,” Esser told the board.

He provided the commissioners with a spreadsheet which showed four other budget options, all which would decrease the amount of the proposed levy increase from the current 6.31 percent to anywhere from 3.9 percent to as low as 1.75 percent.

The decreases in the levy would be accomplished by using a portion of the ARPA money to fund certain capital expenditures in the coming year and by decreasing the amount of the Human Services fund increase.

“My original thought was to use some of the ARPA money to purchase one or two snowplow trucks for the Public Works department,” Esser said. “However, after conferring with Mark Daly (Public Works director), he pointed out because of the Minnesota Department of Transport- ation’s (MnDOT) funding formula we would lose out on the depreciation we are able to claim. So we do not want to use the ARPA funds to buy snow plows. However, we can use the funds to purchase squad cars and for other capital expenditures.”

Esser said he would look at reducing the levy increase down to the 2-3 percent range since that amount seemed to be agreeable with the board.

“If we use the ARPA money on county expenses, it benefits everyone in the county,” Groskreutz concluded.