COEUR d'ALENE - Kootenai County officials are considering major budget cuts to non-mandated services this upcoming fiscal year, including slashes to the Parks Department, The North Idaho Fair and Rodeo and the University of Idaho Extension office.

The potential rollbacks are motivated by continuing budget shortfalls, officials explained.

"The county needs to concentrate on obligated duties," said county Clerk Cliff Hayes, helping to prepare the 2011-12 budget.

This budget is being prepared differently than in previous years, he added.

Instead of the county commissioners crunching numbers themselves with the clerk's assistance, elected department heads are preparing a preliminary budget to present to the commissioners by Aug. 1.

It is designated under state statute for the county budget officer, in this case the county clerk, to prepare a preliminary budget, explained Pat Braden, county civil deputy prosecuting attorney.

"With the new clerk and the new board, that's the way we're doing it," Braden said, adding that the clerk and county staff had always been involved with the process before, though.

The department heads say they are looking at cutting back on services the county isn't required to provide by law.

They're currently considering slashing $200,000 to the Parks Department, roughly all county support to the agency.

Parks would still receive 100 percent of funds from boat launch fees, said county Finance Director David McDowell, which varies each year.

But that isn't a major source of funds for the department, he said.

"That $200,000 reduction is going to have a dramatic impact on the operation of that department," he said.

That will mean personnel cuts, McDowell added, though he couldn't say how many of the eight joint Parks and Waterways staff would be affected.

Hayes said the maintenance of the 10 parks that Parks oversees would be impacted.

The Waterways department, funded by boating license fees, won't be affected, Hayes added.

Nick Snyder, director of Parks and Waterways, was out of town on Friday.

Officials are also considering reducing the county's contribution to the North Idaho Fair and Rodeo from the traditional $100,000 to about $30,000, McDowell said.

Jon Johnson, fair operations supervisor, said the event is self-sustaining from ticket sales, but the county dollars still help with operations and other items.

"I know for sure we'd miss that amount of money, because we're already on a tight budget," Johnson said.

Fair Director Chris Holloway was on vacation on Friday.

The budget preparers are also looking at slashing the entire $161,000 the county provides for the University of Idaho Extension office.

If the county cuts its funding, said extension educator Jim Wilson, that will mean the end of the partnership with the university, and the school will drop its funding, too.

"That would eliminate all extension programs," Wilson said. "So Forestry, Family Consumer Science, the Master Gardener program, the 4-H program, all those would be eliminated."

The extension's several staff positions are funded through a combination of county, university and grant dollars, Wilson added.

"Yes, we've heard this rumor," he said of the possible rollback. "We're going to wait and see what the county clerk, to see indeed what he chooses to do."

The county has to get tough with the budget, McDowell said, as it has lost about $300,000 in revenue from the state.

There is also need to improve funding for mandated services, Hayes said.

"There are many things, particularly in the sheriff's department, that have been asked for years," he said.

Sheriff Rocky Watson confirmed his department is underfunded.

"There's not an area we're not lacking in," Watson said. "We're understaffed, underpaid, and on top of that, there's a high crime rate."

The county commissioners still have the final say on the proposed budget's contents.

Commissioner Todd Tondee said it's too early to say what they will decide.

"We just need to look and see what they (the department heads) bring to us, and evaluate that at that time," Tondee said.

There is much to consider in the county budget, he reminded, over $72 million this fiscal year.

"There are a lot of grants that we're required to maintain, to pay back, so there's a lot of other different issues we need to look at as well," Tondee said.

The county will hold a budget hearing at 6 p.m. on Sept. 6 in room 1 of the county Administration Building.