Budget Cuts: Toot said the first thing he would do to address the current budgetary needs of Story County would be to sit down with the other supervisors and do an overview of the current budget allocation system. 

He said each department the county allocates money to currently has budget work-sessions throughout the fall in which department heads sit down with their staff to determine what kind of need the department has.

“I think by sitting down and doing an overview of exactly how that process works and making sure all of the budget requests are tied to specific essential services to the county we can make the current allocation process work,” Toot said.

Health Care: Story County is currently laboring under law written in 1996 that limits the amount of money counties can allocate from property tax revenue to spending on mental health. While the state is supposed to fill in the gaps, due to the budgetary woes at the state level that bridge funding has not appeared.

Toot said there wasn’t much that the county could to to change how it receives money form the state.

“The state was supposed to come in and help the county make up the difference in spending versus money they were receiving and it hasn’t,” he said. “I think the state needs to let us levy the property taxes at at more realistic rates. There are a lot of counties throughout Iowa whose mental health systems are collapsing. So the best thing the board can do is lobby the sate for change.”

Jobs and Economic Development: Toot said he believed that the Board of Supervisors needs to work directly with business and community leaders throughout the county to help encourage economic development.

“Obviously this is of direct importance to the county because if you can encourage economic development and create jobs you’re going to increase the amount of tax revenue, which will have a direct impact on how many services the county can provide,” Toot said.

He said the Board of Supervisors didn’t use all of the funding it allocated last year toward economic development.

“Maybe we can do a little bit better job of letting people know that there is funding available,” Toot said.

Diversity: Toot said he believes the county does a good job of recruiting for the positions it has available.

“Each department conducts their own hiring process and does their own research or follows the specific hiring process that the county has set forth which encourages women and minorities to apply for any position,” he said.