COEUR d'ALENE - Only halfway through the fiscal year, Kootenai County has nearly depleted its budget for involuntary police holds, according to Commissioner Jai Nelson.

Between Oct. 1 - the start of the fiscal year - and Dec. 31 last year, the county spent $147,500 funding the holds, Nelson said, which involve the temporary hospitalization of individuals at risk due to substance abuse or mental issues.

According to numbers Nelson has analyzed, that only leaves $16,000 left for the rest of the fiscal year.

"We've got another six months to go," she said.

To carry through the rest of the fiscal year, the commissioners are meeting this week to discuss injecting up to $255,500 more into the involuntary holds budget.

While Nelson is gathering stats to discover if the shortfall is due to a spike in disorderly conduct or because the commissioners didn't set enough aside, she suspects the high number of holds is a symptom of the still dragging economy.

"That's an integral part of the increase," she said.

The commissioners will meet from 1 to 1:30 p.m. on Thursday in their board chambers in the administration building to hear the county clerk's opinion and to weigh options.

Individuals acting out because of substance or mental issues are typically picked up by local law enforcement and placed in involuntary protective holds at Kootenai Medical Center, between one and a few days, where they stabilize and are examined.

Idaho statute mandates for counties to fund these holds, Nelson said.

"We will have to fund this out of our contingency fund," Nelson said of closing the funding gap.

Clerk Cliff Hayes said the county has also just discovered an additional $80,000 in unpaid bills for past involuntary holds.

Past commissioners stopped paying when they emptied their budget, he explained.

"But you can't hold bills if Idaho law requires you to pay them," he said.

Hayes wasn't certain if all of Nelson's figures were correct, but he agreed more than $250,000 might have to be rearranged to continue covering the holds.

"Based upon the projections, that is possible," Hayes said. "That's a guess, but it could be a good guess."

Currently, one day of a mental health hold costs nearly $1,000, according to Nelson.

For the last three years, an average 360 people per year have been brought to KMC for police holds. Some are escorted to hospitals as far as Lewiston or Boise, if KMC lacks beds.

Carmen Brochu, KMC chief nursing officer, said she hasn't observed a sudden escalation in police holds.

"I don't see the problem going away," Brochu said, adding that police holds take up much-needed bed space. "And it is a multi-county problem. We're the only psychiatric facility in North Idaho."

KMC had 541 police holds in 2010, Brochu said, of which the county was responsible for 323.

The county was charged for 299 holds in 2011, and for 56 in the first two months of 2012.

Brochu agreed the recession has compounded the number of holds.

"Individuals out on the streets are coping in any way they can, sometimes involving drugs, alcohol, or stress can trigger mental health instability," Brochu said.

Nelson said the budget shortfall underscores the need for a separate involuntary hold facility, a project she has been pursuing with other stakeholders in the region.

Although a recent grab for a $1.5 million grant failed, Nelson is still pursuing funding for a six-bed facility on the KMC campus, which she hopes would serve all five northern counties.

Jointly operated by Kootenai Health, the facility could drop the cost of a police hold to between $173 and $769 a day, she said.

"You can see the difference," Nelson said.

Nelson has made PowerPoint presentations on the issue to local cities, emergency services and other North Idaho county commissioners.

For now, "we'll have to appropriate more (police hold) funds into the next fiscal budget," Nelson said.