For the last several years, Jeffco's General Fund expenditures have exceeded its revenues, resulting in spending our fund balance - or savings account.

In 2002 we had a General Fund Balance of $90 million; today, that balance is closer to $20 million, and had we continued the trend, we would have spent $12 million more than we earned this year.

Clearly, that is not sustainable. So we asked a Citizen's Panel and several inter-county committees to make recommendations, which have resulted in a $12 million reduction in General Fund Expenses.

(We have several other funds, like the Library or Open Space, which have a dedicated income source and are not subject to these cuts.)

Much of this has been born by our employees, who are paying more for their health insurance and are losing county match in one retirement program.

Many departments are also seeing either frozen salaries, frozen positions, or both. We are making cuts nearly everywhere, except in programs with a separate voter-approved funding source.

I am also hearing complaints from a wide range of citizens whose favorite program is facing reductons.

I am happy to discuss the situation with anyone, but the reality is that we have no easy answers. We can't raise revenues without a vote of the people, and we can't dip any deeper into our reserves. So we are cutting.

We are trying to make sure that services to citizens are not seriously impacted, but there is no way we can make this level of cut without consequences.

We may lose key employees to other cities or counties with more revenue. We will charge more for some services. We aren't paving any new roads this year. And we don't have a way to pay for new courtrooms for the five new judges we are getting over the next four years.

County government is primarily dependent on property taxes - they account for nearly two-thirds of our General Fund.

If the current problems in the mortgage market lead to downturns in county-wide property values, we could face more cuts after the next assessment cycle, in 2009. We will be meeting with the Citizen's Budget Review Panel again in 2008 to consider capital construction needs that we are not currently funding (like the courtrooms noted above), as well as what the future may hold.

Kathy Hartman is Jefferson County Commissioner.