Kootenai County commissioners approve $141 million budget

COEUR d’ALENE — Kootenai County commissioners voted Wednesday to approve the county’s fiscal year 2024 budget, which includes levying 3% more property taxes.

Commissioners Bill Brooks and Bruce Mattare voted in favor of the budget, which is about $4 million greater than in fiscal year 2023, while Leslie Duncan opposed it.

The county operations budget is $23.6 million, while the budget for capital purchases totals $2.3 million. The budget also calls for $31 million for Kootenai County Solid Waste.

Personnel costs make up the bulk of the county’s budget — about $83.7 million of the total, on par with the 2023 budget.

This includes $5.3 million in wage increases. County employees will receive a 4.5% cost of living adjustment, totaling $1.8 million.

The Sheriff’s Office has the largest budget of all county departments, at $44 million or 31% of the total. Patrol deputies and Sheriff’s Office command staff will see increases totaling $1.5 million in FY 2024, based on a new salary matrix created by the county.

The Board of County Commissioners has the second-largest budget at $36 million or 26% of the total.

With this budget, Kootenai County’s nine elected officials received a raise that puts their wages at 97% of Canyon County’s FY 2023 elected official wage rates.

Canyon County is the second-most-populated in Idaho, with about 231,000 residents as of 2021. Kootenai County is third, with about 171,000 residents.

Proposed elected official salaries for fiscal year 2024 are as follows:

• Prosecutor $159,182 (previous salary was $138,382)

• Assessor $108,888 (previous salary was $95,811)

• Clerk $114,878 (previous salary was $97,240)

• Commissioner $108,992 (previous salary was $95,534)

• Coroner $97,468 (previous salary was $82,888)

• Treasurer $110,136 (previous salary was $95,014)

• Sheriff $145,516 (previous salary was $119,392)

Mattare spoke in favor of increased pay for sheriff’s deputies and on-call pay for detectives. He also called for creating a policy that addresses when and how pay for elected officials is calculated.

“It is only fair that if one is to stand on principle and protest publicly against this budget, then that person should live by that principle, and so I say let’s put our money where our mouths are and let’s not accept the raise together,” Mattare said. “I will be right there to not accept the raise with the commissioner who votes against this budget.”

“Well-played,” Duncan said to Mattare.

Since she was first elected, Duncan said she has supported annual pay raises for employees, though she has not always voted in favor of the budget.

She has previously expressed reservations about providing on-call pay for employees in certain departments but not others.

“I would challenge every elected official here to turn down the raise and I would do the same,” she said. “I believe that people run for office and there’s a certain amount attached to it and you know what you’re getting into. Nobody came here to get rich and, with that lack of policy, I would be comfortable giving elected officials a cost of living raise because nobody should be going backward when they intended to run for public service.”

The board is expected to formally adopt the approved budget Friday morning.

Commissioners also unanimously approved proposed budgets for the Aquifer Protection District and the Kootenai County EMS System.

After KCEMSS Chief Bill Keeley presented the agency’s budget to the board, he received a certificate of appreciation from Kootenai County in recognition of his 25 years of service to the county. Keeley will retire in October and already has plans for what’s next.

“I’m going to spend six months with my brand new granddaughter,” he said.