COEUR d'ALENE - Facing serious budget shortfalls, most Kootenai County highway districts are looking to the public to help maintain roads.

Worley Highway District, which will hold its budget hearing Tuesday, is proposing a 3 percent property tax hike.

Those dollars won't go toward any spectacular improvements, said Clerk/Treasurer Carol Richel. They will simply help keep the district's 190 miles of road intact.

"We are going backwards with all the expenses, just trying to maintain the roads," Richel said Friday. "This is simply to keep up with our current expenses."

The district is taking financial hits on all sides, Richel explained.

A federal reserve of funds for highway entities has been depleting each year, she said. And the cost of basic materials like oils and hot mix continue to rise.

"We can only increase 3 percent, but other things have increased a lot more than that," she said, referring to state law that limits tax increases to only 3 percent per year.

The total proposed budget of $1,113,690 does not include raises for the district's 20 employees, she added.

The district has only one big project planned next fiscal year, she added, to finish straightening the approach from Hull Loop onto Kid Island Road for safety purposes.

"If we don't keep up the roads once they start falling apart, depending on how bad it's got, we may have to go from paved roads to gravel," Richel said. "And we don't want that."

The budget hearing is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday at the WFD Station #1, at 31541 South Highway 95 in Worley.

POST FALLS DISTRICT

Post Falls Highway District is feeling the same pinch, said Commissioner Lynn Humphreys.

The district commissioners approved a full 3 percent tax bump earlier this month, expected to pull in an extra $50,194.

Although the total budget is $5,298,878, the additional dollars are still a crucial boost to cover the essentials, Humphreys said.

"Everything we buy is higher, so we have to have additional revenues to help offset that," he said. "Our level of service will sooner or later fall by the wayside, and we don't want that to happen."

PFHD gave a 67-cent raise to the 17 unelected employees. The three commissioners did not take raises.

The limited revenue has precluded any projects or improvements beyond those long planned, Humphreys said.

The district has finally acquired federal funding, he added, to widen an additional mile of Prairie Avenue between Huetter and Meyer roads.

"I would guess it's been five or six years waiting for that funding," he said.

EAST SIDE DISTRICT

East Side Highway District took all its 3 percent this year, just as it has for many years, said Commissioner Dick Edinger.

Besides the common financial issues districts are facing, East Side is already trying to play revenue catch-up, Edinger said, because a previous board dramatically reduced its levy in the '70s.

"We just don't get the money that the other districts get," Edinger said.

East Side's approved $4,178,697 budget did not include raises for any of the 19 employees.

The district is barely able to cover road maintenance, Edinger said. That's why, he added, the commissioners so ardently pursued three local improvement districts to fund overlays in Coeur d'Alene and Harrison.

The Kootenai County commissioners will hold a hearing next month over whether to uphold the LIDs totaling half a million dollars, he said.

If the funding mechanisms are overturned, then that half a million will also be carved out of the budget.

"I don't look too favorably (on the hearing)," Edinger said. "Two of them are up for election in two years."

LAKES DISTRICT

Lakes Highway District didn't have to take a tax hike for next fiscal year, said Commissioner Marv Lekstrum.

The commissioners were even able to grant 2 percent raises for the district's 16 employees in the $5,889,105 budget approved this month, he added.

It's all thanks to the district's recent reorganization, Lekstrum explained.

"We're a million dollars ahead on our capital improvement project list, because of the trimming we've done," he said.

The district's tweaking included conducting more engineering in-house, doing away with five positions, and focusing on rehabilitating roads instead of waiting to rebuild them.

Savings have also come through from construction crews lowering their bids to compete, he added.

Lekstrum understands the pressures other districts face, he said.

But his district is holding its own for now.

"We're running a lot leaner than we were," he said.