County budget proposal: $79.6M

COEUR d'ALENE - The Kootenai County commissioners on Wednesday announced a proposed 2015 budget of $79.6 million and no planned tax increases.

The proposed budget is larger than the current adopted budget of $75.1 million. The additional roughly $4.5 million comes from new construction revenues and money from county savings.

"I proposed a new budget process this year based upon reviewing a five-year history of actual expenditures," said Commissioner Jai Nelson. "This analysis made a significant difference in 'right-sizing' many specific line items as well as overall budgets."

With the new procedure, she said, this is the most conservative and accurate county budget in "many years."

"I'm proud of this fiscally prudent effort, as it's an ongoing challenge to balance our many services with the thoughtful use of taxpayer resources," Nelson said.

More than half of the 2015 budget, or $41.3 million, would be funded by property taxes.

The proposed budget funds an additional eight county positions, including support staff for the sheriff's office, information systems, grant department and solid waste department.

Additionally, it includes a sheriff's office detective position, an adult misdemeanor probation officer and two District Court clerks.

Due to several positions being eliminated or inactivated, there is actually a net loss of one-half position, bringing the current total to 773 full-time equivalent budgeted positions.

"As with past years, I am once again disappointed that the public defender (office) will not be allocated any staff positions," Chief Public Defender John Adams said Wednesday. "We remain understaffed and are at a critical position in this area."

Prosecutor Barry McHugh was out of the office Wednesday and couldn't be reached for comment about the proposed budget. The chief civil deputy, Barry Black, declined to comment on behalf of the office. Sheriff Ben Wolfinger was out of the office and couldn't be reached for comment.

The current budget proposal includes a wage adjustment for the fourth year in a row.

"Overall, we're still behind the market," said Commissioner Todd Tondee.

Last year, after a market study was conducted, wage increases were made to adjust pay grades to within 3.5 percent of the market, but that created wage compression issues.

This year, for the general pay plan, an analysis was conducted to compare employees' pay rates to their positions' market pay rate.

The commissioners were presented with three options to address this adjustment and decided to increase the applicable employees' wages by an overall total of $731,000 in a one-year timeframe.

Additionally, another 1.5 percent has been allocated for merit-based increases which include funding to address the attorney pay band, sworn officer matrix and the 911 dispatch matrix, equating to a total of $1.3 million for wage increases.

Current health care benefit levels will be maintained, with no proposed increase for employee contributions or out-of-pocket expenses.

Some budget expenditure highlights include eight patrol vehicles, two detective vehicles, a probation officer vehicle and the reconstruction of Airport Drive.

Due to the increasing volume of involuntary holds for mental health issues and substance abuse, also referred to as police holds, the state-mandated budget item was increased by more than 100 percent to nearly $1.1 million.

"By Idaho code, individuals placed on involuntary-protective holds are an obligation to be paid for by the county," Nelson said. "These involuntary-protective holds are brought to the Kootenai Health emergency department for medical clearance and admission."

The largest capital expenditures are for rural site improvements for solid waste, and an $800,000 tub grinder to process and recycle more than 10,800 tons of wood waste annually. The current method is to contract a vendor for processing and hauling of wood waste.

By handling wood waste in-house, the solid waste department would save approximately $250,000 each year, so the commissioners anticipate the county recouping the investment within four years.

A public hearing on the proposed fiscal year 2015 budget is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Aug. 27 at the Kootenai County Administration Building. Public testimony will be accepted.