COEUR d'ALENE - The Kootenai County clerk will not recommend the commissioners scrap non-mandated services after all, when he presents a preliminary county budget on Monday.

Clerk Cliff Hayes, who has prepared budget recommendations with other elected county officials, said he will not propose slashing all funding for the Parks Department and the University of Idaho Extension Office, as previously discussed.

"We will look at it again next year," Hayes said on Thursday. "The desire of the group was to eliminate many of these unmandated services, but taking them out 100 percent the first year was a little too much for them to take."

Hayes' recommended $73,956,420 budget will also include a wage increase for more than 700 employees, and no property tax hike.

"They (the commissioners) said at the very onset, 'Do not raise taxes,'" Hayes said.

The clerk is suggesting the Parks Department receive the same funding, about $200,000, it was given this past fiscal year.

There were too many grant complications to cut the department, he said.

"There were potentially some things that would have to be paid back," Hayes said.

He is also proposing only trimming the Extension Office funding from $160,000 to $130,000, with a suggestion to the office to maintain the 4-H Youth Development program.

The University of Idaho, which contributes about $260,000 to the extension partnership, had suggested the office would close completely if the county didn't pay its share.

Hayes said he received letters from county residents to fund the office, which oversees the 4-H program.

"They were concerned," he said. "But our position has been, why do we fund this program out of county revenues, when we're not funding many others that are just as good?"

The preliminary budget will also include a 2.8 percent wage increase for all non-elected employees at the county, approximately 750 individuals.

Many employees have not had a raise in three years, Hayes pointed out.

"I looked at the payroll of my staff when I came into office, and I was appalled at the people who are making $10.50, $11 an hour," he said. "Gasoline is going up, as we know, as well as bread and milk and everything else."

The preliminary budget also includes a few new positions, including a new attorney in the prosecutor's office, a new staff member in the clerk's office and a new secretary at the sheriff's department.

Hayes is also proposing to raise the sheriff's department funding by $1,113,252, which will go toward personnel and a new surveillance system for the jail.

"There are several things they have asked for years that have been accomplished in this (suggested budget)," he said.

The sheriff's department was given $4,003,941 for the 2010-11 fiscal year.

The preliminary budget also calls for cutting funding to the North Idaho Fair and Rodeo from the $90,000 it received last year to about $30,000.

This fiscal year's budget overall was $72,151,802.

Hayes' budget presentation and further budget discussions are scheduled from 9-11 a.m. and from 2-4 p.m. on Monday, in the commissioners' chambers in the county administration office.

It is open to the public.

This is the first year the clerk will present a preliminary budget to the commissioners. The three officials can make changes to the proposed budget before Aug. 19, Hayes said.

The commissioners will hold a public hearing on the final budget numbers at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 6 in Room 1 of the administration building.

"That forum is set up for the public to intervene, and give ideas," Hayes said.