By BRIAN WALKER

Staff Writer

COEUR d'ALENE — Kootenai County is proposing a 1.5 percent property tax increase for its fiscal 2019 budget, but officials estimate most homeowners would see a $22.66 reduction per $100,000 of home value in the county portion of its taxes even if the hike is approved due to the help of new growth dollars.

"We've had almost $2 billion in growth, so the net effect to the taxpayer would be $22.66 less than last year per $100,000," Finance Director Dena Darrow told county commissioners on Friday during a presentation on the final proposed budget that culminated more than three months of workshops.

If approved, the property tax increase would generate about $687,000 in revenue.

Cities and counties are allowed under law to increase taxes up to 3 percent per year.

The public hearing on the proposed total budget of $94 million will be held on Aug. 29 at 6 p.m. at the County Administration Building.

Commissioners took a 1.5 percent property tax hike for fiscal 2018, a 3 percent bump for fiscal 2017 and no increase in fiscal 2016.

Wage increases of 2.5 percent totaling $735,990 are planned. That figure does not include sworn personnel, which use a matrix system. The total amount of increases planned for sworn staff is $231,120.

There is no cost-of-living adjustment planned, contrary to proposed budgets for some area cities.

New personnel requests totaling $643,668 are included in the proposal.

New positions include: a title clerk for vehicle licensing, $49,593 including benefits; two juvenile detention specialists, $99,932 total; misdemeanor probation officer, $36,934 (county portion); sheriff's office administrative assistant, $57,856; appraiser, $66,042; and two scale operators/spotters in Solid Waste, $110,196 total.

Darrow said 20 other positions that were requested were cut from the budget.

The latest addition to the proposed budget, which was tentatively approved by commissioners on Friday, was $40,000 in video equipment so meetings can be televised. The city of Coeur d'Alene, which already has its own cable channel, has agreed to assist the county with logistics of televising meetings.

Commissioners agree televising meetings will improve transparency, but a hurdle will be finding a large enough room for the broadcasts. The equipment will be purchased out of the fund balance.

Another transparency proposal, software that would allow the public to see the county's financial picture in near-real time and supported by Commissioner Bob Bingham, did not make the final cut when Commissioners Marc Eberlein and Chris Fillios did not support adding the $17,000 annual cost to the budget.

Darrow said she didn't support the feature because users can't choose a date to find data.

"You can only see the year-to-date data, so I'm concerned it could lead to more questions," she said.

Proponents believe the system could save staff time on public record requests and allow the public to have a "deep data dive" to see how the county arrived at certain figures.

The medical insurance increase will be $1.1 million. The county is proposing to pick up more than half of that amount and employees will be asked to pick up the rest.

Thirty-five new sheriff's office vehicles were originally requested in the budget, but that number was trimmed to nine to save $1.7 million. Eight of the vehicles are for patrol and the other is a transport van.

Internal auditing ($100,000), a coroner's laboratory and equipment ($514,065) and airport infrastructure and equipment ($478,000) were among the other cuts.

The county is not proposing to use any of its foregone tax balance in the budget.

Foregone is a taxing authority built up from previous years of the council not taking the maximum yearly property tax increase of 3 percent.

The commissioners on Friday unanimously agreed to have staff publish the proposed budget in the newspaper.

Fillios and Bingham supported the proposed budget as presented. Eberlein did not support the proposal, saying he would have considered making more cuts.