Grant County budget shortfall decreasing

EPHRATA - A projected $4.5 million budget shortfall for Grant County was decreased to $2.52 million this week after a series of budget hearings.

Grant County Commissioner LeRoy Allison said Wednesday he doesn't expect employees will have to be laid off to balance the budget.

The projected budget for 2008 is $32.5 million, $2.9 million higher than last year's budget.

Departments were asked to cut their budgets by 5 percent.

The budget will likely be approved by the middle of next week, he said. Commissioners and department heads still need to figure out what capital requests can be met, he said.

"We're attempting to get to a balanced budget," Allison said.

Last year, the county spent $1.8 million in reserves to balance the budget. He said reserves will likely be used to balance next year's budget, but wasn't sure how much.

He cited a wage increase beyond the cost of living adjustment for most county employees of $1.2 million to $1.3 million as a big piece of the added spending. The wage increase comes to 3 percent to 3.5 percent per employee.

Salaries were last updated 10 years ago, Allison said.

The salary increase doesn't include sheriff's deputies, prosecuting deputies and elected officials. Raises for sheriff's deputies and prosecuting deputies have been addressed in contracts, Allison said.

The wage increase was proposed because county employees received a 5 percent wage cut in the 1990s to make up for a medical plan in which 100 percent of the costs were paid, he said.

Grant County developed its proposed wage increase from studying wages of like-sized counties, including Franklin, Chelan, Walla Walla, Lewis, Cowlitz and Clallam counties.

Extra county sales tax of about $900,000 will be collected by the end of the year on new construction projects. The sales tax money will help the budget, but the added money isn't "a budget buster or budget maker," he said.

Property taxes from county growth won't be collected until a year after the property is assessed, which doesn't help the proposed budget, he said.