GC 2005 budget facing serious shortfall

Commissioners ask officials to prioritize expenses, ask citizens for ideas

EPHRATA — Mired in a serious financial crisis, the three members of the Grant County Board of Commissioners are seeking out the input of citizens.

Having announced a plan to reduce expenses in most departments, the commissioners have said that these cuts will probably result in the reduction of county personnel and the transformation of full-time positions into part-time.

"In the last year we have had an extraordinary set of circumstances that have placed us in a difficult fiscal position," board chairman LeRoy Allison said in a press release. "We either have to raise taxes, cut expenses or develop a combination of the two in order to balance the budget.

Finding ways to come up with solutions to the budget deficit was the reason behind a citizens' meeting held by the commissioners Wednesday morning. Department heads, private entity leaders and area residents gathered to put in their two cents' worth to right the county's ship.

Commissioner Deborah Moore said an idea would be to change the hours of service from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., to from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

"We don't want to limit services, but we want to increase efficiency," she said.

Former Moses Lake Mayor Wayne Rimple said the idea had found less than critical acclaim when tried out in his city.

"The public demanded we go back to 8 a.m.," he said.

The meeting served as a chance for people to air their grievances against things that may have aided the crisis, as well.

"The government is not creating a level playing field with the Internet," said Darryl Pheasant, county treasurer. "There is no sales tax on the Internet, so when people do not go to stores, the cities depending on sales tax suffer."

Moore agreed, saying that the state has chosen not to fund the area of local criminal justice.

"We rank 50th among 50 states because the state chose not to fund trial courts," she said. "The cases are 'State versus' and not 'County versus,' but the county has to pay and not the state."

A consensus was that, to a degree, local governments' involvement might help lessen the problem. Cities that help make spending decisions at entities such as Grant County Health District could be asked to contribute.

"We have asked them before," Moore said. "They respectfully have said 'no, thanks.'"

Citizen contribution in the form of taxes has suffered, as well.

To Rimple, people who support tax-cutting initiatives see the attractiveness of saving money on taxes, but do not see the ultimate ramifications of such savings in the form of reduced services in cities and counties.

The response from the state has not been much different. Pheasant said the state has empowered the counties and cities to ask people for money instead of giving the local governments actual funds.

County auditor Bill Varney said that certain legislation on domestic violence and guidelines on low-income housing have not helped.

"The state will not give us a dollar, but will give us a fee for money we have to turn over to them on low-income housing," he said.

Rimple concurred.

"People in Olympia don't come from where we come from," he said. "They are out of reality."

The reality of the county's problem involves cutting from four to seven percent in most departments, including county clerk, the assessor's and auditor's offices, the prosecuting attorney's office and the sheriff's department. The two latter ones are facing the larger cut.

"Seven percent is a lot of money," said Grant County Sheriff Frank De Trolio, who called the cuts "a killer."

"We have to figure out how we are going to do this," he said. "It's not going to be an easy answer."

Rimple said the way to convince the taxpayer to help out is to let him or her know where their money is going and that "it is not being wasted," he said.

Although no final decision is expected on the 2005 budget until December, other ideas include pulling cumulative reserve dollars back out and into the budget, although many at the meeting deemed that a temporary solution.

Other solutions may include reducing the deficit with new revenues and/or reduced employee benefits, although the press release stated that the cuts would "undoubtedly" result in shrinking of workforce.

Phil Isaak, a farmer out of Coulee City, said that something had to be done.

"If 70 percent of our budget is going into law enforcement, that is not sustainable," he said, referring to the higher costs for indigent defense. "Somebody has to step up and say what is causing all these problems."