RENO – Every spring as local municipalities start to firm up their fiscal year budgets to present to the state in June, departments in Washoe County give a quick status update to the Board of County Commissioners. The presentations started Monday and had one common theme: how each department would trim expenses.

“In the last couple of years, the focus of the presentations has been, ‘How are you going to make your budget cut numbers?’ ” said county spokeswoman Kathy Carter.

The presentations generally include wish lists as well as each department's goals.

Through the presentations, the county will have to find about $25 million, or 9.5 percent, that it can carve from already lean budgets.

Monday's presentations came from the general government side of county business, which has been asked to trim 4 percent from its budgets.

While most of the reductions focused on trimming expenses on supplies and eliminating frozen positions, the county registrar proposed some cost-cutting measures that voters will see in the upcoming elections. Through a budget exception, the registrar's office was asked to cut 3 percent rather than 4 percent.

The Registrar of Voters office will implement a new ballot printing process to cut more than $200,000 from its budget in advance of the 2010 general election.

To save on sample ballot printing costs, voters can now expect a ballot that would be of newspaper weight and tabbed together this year, according to the registrar's office report. Also, for the first time, the county will not customize ballots for individual districts, meaning a little more discretion and alertness will be necessary on the part of the voter.

By going to a standardized format and to a cheaper quality paper, the county will save $200,000.

The county registrar is also taking measures to cut down on the workload on Election Day by purchasing vaults to store election materials on site. The county will be purchasing secure locking devices for its nearly 100 Election Day polling places. According to staff reports, this will eliminate the need for about 600 poll workers to pick up supplies at the registrar’s office before the election, meaning a savings of about $2,100.

The county will also be cutting the number of poll workers by about 50 percent from 1,100 to about 600 as well as outsourcing some services.

“The upside to this is that we continue to find ways to work innovatively,” Carter said.

Other presentations on cost-cutting that will directly affect the public will take place on Monday as community development, libraries, parks and open space and other departments will present their budget scenarios.

The departments that deal with culture and recreation will be asked to cut 5 percent. Public safety has been asked to cut 2 percent and judicial, health and social services have been asked to cut 3 percent. Public safety and the judicial departments will make their presentations on April 12. All meetings start at 9 a.m. in the Washoe County Commission Chambers located at Ninth Street and Wells Avenue in Reno.

Washoe County has reduced spending by more than $100 million over the last four years. In the current fiscal year, the county has experienced the most severe cuts as more than 500 positions have been eliminated through vacancy freezes, early retirements and layoffs. According to a statement from the county, most employees took 2.5 percent pay cuts from February to December 2009 with some voluntarily extending that decrease through June 2010. All employees have foregone annual cost of living raises for two years, according to that same written statement. The county’s staffing levels are now at fiscal year 1999-2000 levels.