Kootenai County budget could hinge on employee pay boost

COEUR d’ALENE — Pay for county employees may be a sticking point for Kootenai County commissioners as they circle closer to approving a budget for fiscal year 2025.

Commissioners met again Thursday to discuss the budget before the balanced budget is presented Aug. 1. After the budget is published, it can’t increase, though commissioners can make cuts until they adopt a final budget at the end of August.

Proposed expenditures for the budget total about $132 million. The published budget will assume a 3% increase in taxes, the maximum allowable amount, but two out of three commissioners have indicated the actual increase will be lower for FY 2025.

Commissioner Bill Brooks has pushed for a 4.5% cost of living adjustment for county employees but said he’s willing to settle for a 3.5% increase, the amount recommended by the county’s HR department.

“I will not vote for any budget that doesn’t include at least a 3.5% cost of living adjustment and the regular step increases,” Brooks told The Press on Thursday. “We don’t give with one hand and take with the other.”

If the board takes the maximum 3% tax increase and approves a 3.5% cost of living adjustment, that would leave the county with a “cushion” of about $280,000 that could be used for capital projects, mid-year personnel changes or other expenses, Kootenai County Finance Director Brandi Falcon said.

Meanwhile, Commissioners Leslie Duncan and Bruce Mattare have both said they’re willing to accept a 2.5% cost of living adjustment for employees.

“In the private sector … in tough times, your employer often says, ‘We’re not going to talk about (cost of living adjustments), we’re going to talk about you keeping your job,’” Mattare said. “Employers are willing to make great sacrifices to keep their people. Usually, it comes out of their pocket just so they can keep their jobs.” 

County elected officials won’t receive cost of living adjustments in the coming year. In 2024, the county’s nine elected officials received raises that put their wages at 97% of Canyon County’s FY 2023 elected official wage rates.

Duncan said she favors a 1.5% tax increase, at least for the purposes of publishing a balanced budget.

Mattare said he opposes taking a 3% tax increase, in part because of a lack of clear vision about how excess funds might be used in the future.

“I think we all know where everyone kind of stands,” he said. “I think it’s just a matter of us agreeing in the end. I don’t want it to be one dollar more. The problem with the fact that we don’t have any real planning for this cushion, if you will, no matter how big or small it is, is we don’t know where it’s going, so we can’t tell people, ‘This is what we’re taxing you for.’”

The balanced budget will be presented at 2:30 p.m. Aug. 1 at the Kootenai County administration building. A public hearing on the budget is set for 6 p.m. Aug. 28, also in the administration building.

Commissioners are expected to adopt the FY 2025 budget Aug. 30.