Wednesday, October 04, 2000

It happens all the time.

The Mower County Fair Board and the Mower County Historical Society submit a budget and the county board approves a figure.

Unlike most of the county departments and agencies, the Fair Board and historical society proceed to ignore the budgets and return – sometimes frequently – to ask for more money from the county board.

On Tuesday, it was the historical society’s turn.

The society sent George Brophy, its board president, to ask the county commissioners some questions – mostly requests for money.

With a large number of historical society board members watching, Brophy button-holed the county commissioners about funding issues.

After an audit showed the society failed to pay property payroll taxes and the agency was fined, an audit was conducted of the organization’s financial records.

Brophy’s first challenge was to remind the commissioners to pay the $2,800 in audit expenses as promised, and they did.

Next Brophy reminded the county commissioners of "financial stress" endured by the society early this year that resulted in a deficit.

After originally being rebuffed by the county board members, the historical society went to the city of Austin, which agreed to allocate $5,000 to the organization to cover its shortfall.

With the city’s donation came a letter from finance director Tom Dankert informing that the city’s finance committee was making the $5,000 allocation a "one-time-only" contribution to the society and that the committee would not look favorably upon another request.

Richard P. Cummings, First District county commissioner, reminded Brophy: "We asked for a contingency plan if the funding wasn’t available and what steps the historical society was taking to relieve its financial problems."

Ray Tucker, Second District and chairman of the board, wanted to know what created the $10,000 shortage of funds.

Brophy said increasing wages, rising utility expenses and miscellaneous expenses were the reason.

This decision took the commissioners longer to make despite Brophy’s persistence.

"You can say ‘yes’ or you can say ‘no’," he told the commissioners at one point. "What we want to know is will you do it?"

Before the vote was taken, David Hillier, Third District, told Brophy and the historical society’s delegation that a survey of Minnesota counties showed many historical organizations receive less than 20 percent of their annual budgets as county allocations.

How much is the Mower County’s subsidy by the county? Answer: Currently 96 percent of its total budget.

When the vote was taken, Brophy and the society had their second financial victory of the day: this one a $5,000 emergency disbursement.

Brophy also sought "straight answers" from the county board on whether or not the society can pay for a concrete pad for the 1884 courthouse dome that is looking for a home as a historical exhibit at the fairgrounds.