Commissioners whip out budget knives
Coeur d'Alene Press | UPDATED 5 years, 8 months AGO
By BRIAN WALKER
Staff Writer
COEUR d'ALENE — Budget cutting won't be a picnic for Kootenai County commissioners this summer.
The board over the next three months will try to trim $19 million in requests from department heads just to meet a budget that would include a 3 percent property tax increase and funds generated from new growth.
"Can we end now?" joked Chairman Chris Fillios, moments after the board was handed a book on the new budget requests.
Last year at this time, the board had about $12 million in cuts that needed to be made.
The board will hear presentations from department heads this summer. They’ll be preparing for a public hearing on the budget on Thursday, Aug. 29, at 6 p.m. at the Administration Building.
"There's plenty of time to sit down, roll up our sleeves and get through this," Finance Director Dena Darrow told commissioners. "Having a large deficit (to open the budget season) is pretty normal.
"It's not going to be easy because everybody has needs."
Darrow said she noticed that some departments are proposing to cut their travel budgets for other needs.
A 1.5 percent property tax increase was taken for the current budget cycle, a 1.5 percent hike was made two years ago and a 3 percent increase was implemented three years ago. Government agencies are allowed under law to increase taxes as much as 3 percent per year.
Commissioner Bill Brooks said the county has fallen behind in recent years on some needs such as fleet replacement, so that snowball effect will make it difficult to not take the full 3 percent this year.
"If every year you want to look good and take a minimalist approach (on tax increases), we're kicking the can down the road and somebody will have to pay for it ultimately," Brooks said. "Politically, (no tax hike) is great, but really it's short-term thinking."
A 3 percent property tax increase would generate an estimated $1.5 million and funds from new growth another $1.1 million.
Fillios said a property tax hike wouldn't automatically mean all homeowners will see an increase in the county portion of their overall property tax picture due to increasing local property values.
The county also has $12.3 million in its fund balance that can be tapped to assist with the budget, but Darrow cautioned that the amount is the "only backstop against unforeseen expenses."
"Once it's gone, it will greatly reduce our financial flexibility," she said. "In the past, we used these reserves to fund most capital items and keep taxes lower …"
The county's health insurance premium is expected to increase $1.6 million.
"We are looking at an estimated 16 percent increase in medical insurance costs," Darrow said. "The (public employee retirement system) is another unfunded mandate we are facing at $238,641."
There are 26 new position requests. The county employs more than 800 now.
Fillios said the county has averaged seven new positions, excluding staffing for the jail expansion, in recent years. He said that rate of new hires hasn't kept pace with the county's population growth.
Tentative wage increases of 2 percent are planned in the tentative budget for most employees.
Pending studies on wages and facility needs could also impact the final budget proposal, officials said.
Sheriff's office administrators have been lobbying for wage hikes for their department in hopes of retaining more employees and not losing them to other agencies after paying for their training.
The starting wage for a deputy in Kootenai County is $21.10 per hour. That compares to $22.36 for an officer in Post Falls, $23.06 in Coeur d'Alene, $23.86 at Spokane County and $23.27 in Spokane, according to a KCSO analysis.
The sheriff's office has 37 patrol vehicles with at least 70,000 miles on them, the mileage that county policy indicates need replaced. Administrators said they realize replacing that many units in one year isn’t realistic, but they also urged the board to consider not falling further behind in the program.
Undersheriff Dan Mattos told the board that the sheriff's office would consider increasing the replacement mileage to 100,000 to ease the pinch.
The countywide total request for the fleet program is nearly $3.3 million.
Brooks said new ideas on belt tightening will need to be discussed with the departments during the budget process.
"The way we run our law enforcement fleet is not the only way to run a law enforcement fleet," he said.
Mattos said the county's take-home program on vehicles is not unusual. Some other area agencies use such a program, but it gives employees an incentive to remain at the county in light of the wage differential.
However, Brooks said he doesn't like to see that program as part of the compensation picture.
"Let's get regular compensation where it should be and eliminate (the notion of using the take-home vehicle program as being considered a benefit for retention)," Brooks said.
Both Mattos and Brooks said they don't believe the county's law enforcement wages should or can be bumped up to equal Coeur d'Alene's, but being competitive is crucial.
Brooks said that while there are hard budget decisions to be made this summer, he's optimistic that enough cuts can be made with both level of service and taxpayers in mind.
"There's some cutting that needs to be done, but I don't think it's impossible," he said.