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GREENSBORO — Amid national economic crisis, the state taking money back and Greensboro budget cutbacks, Guilford County’s budget appears to be somewhat safe.

Even so, a few programs in county departments have been cut because of the state’s request to take money back in this budget year.

A plan to start intense drug rehabilitation services for the indigent won’t happen through the Guilford Center this year. And the Smart Start program in the Department of Public Health is making up some budget shortfalls through lapsed salaries, about $71,000 that has not been paid out between the departure of one staffer and the hire of another.

Both were results of state-funding issues.

As that happens, County Manager David McNeill is not making drastic changes to the budget, though he has a plan that includes hiring freezes and funding cuts if the economic crisis hits the county hard.

“We’re asking our folks to be conservative right now as we go through the next months, and we’ll see how conservative we were on our revenue estimates,” McNeill said this week.

A property tax rate increase the Board of Commissioners passed in the 2008-09 budget is also expected to raise about $16 million.

By comparison, Greensboro didn’t include any property tax rate increase in its budget. And the Guilford County Schools budget is largely tied to funding from the state, which is taking back $5 million budgeted for the schools. The city and the county this week announced that each plans to cut spending.

The county also did not increase its revenue projections for sales tax in this year’s budget.

The budget also included a $900,000 shortfall to be made through unfilled positions in employee cutbacks and attrition but wasn’t specifically outlined when the $587.9 million budget passed, a move that auditors won’t be happy with, McNeill has said.

He said that he doesn’t have estimates on how short, if at all, the county will be on funds.

“I guess the word is 'caution,’ right now,” he said. “We’re not at any panic level. We’re just going to continue to monitor things.”

A couple of issues also stand in the way of determining how much money the county will receive in coming months. First, sales tax revenue is often distributed months after it’s collected by the state; sales tax collections from August are just now getting back to the county. Second, local property taxes aren’t due until 2009.

“I’ve had contacts with people who have had expressed concern with the ability to pay their tax bill before the interest period begins on Jan. 5,” said Francis Kinlaw, the county’s tax director.

He said that more people are calling about payment plans for taxes and urges those who are interested to call his office, which has a collection rate of 98 to 99 percent.

“We haven’t come to the time where we will be able to really judge the cases that will be the most stressful,” Kinlaw said.

At the Guilford Center, the state cutback means that they’re giving back more than $705,000 and cutting a new addiction treatment program for those who can’t afford insurance.

In that, a $480,860 program for intensive group and individual therapy didn’t even get time to see bidders.

“With the state deallocation, we could not move forward with that plan,” said Tana Wirtz, contracts manager for the Guilford Center. Another $209,000 will be lost through lapsed salaries, and $15,424 was handed back as administrative cuts to several programs for special populations such as the deaf, geriatric and children.

Other affected items include travel budgets for staff to attend events like training meetings, according to Penny Casto, spokeswoman for the Guilford Center.

Contact Gerald Witt at 373-7008 or gerald.witt@news-record.com