Grant County facing revenue shortfall

EPHRATA — Grant County is facing a $500,000 shortfall for the current expense fund, if the county doesn’t receive more revenue this year.

The current expense fund pays for several of the county’s departments, such as the sheriff’s office, prosecutor’s office and both superior and district court. The decline came after the county asked all of the departments to cut 3 percent for the 2009 budget, forcing departments to lay off workers and cut hours.

Grant County Treasurer Darryl Pheasant said if the county doesn’t receive any more revenue than what’s expected, the county would be at least $500,000 short of the $31 million expected.

“We didn’t have that cushion,” he said. “We were trying to leave that carryover balance alone.”

While the figures show a drop, Pheasant said there are some revenue sources that have not been reported yet.

The majority of the shortfall comes in the county’s investment pool, which has slid from an about 5 percent return to a less than 1 percent return, Pheasant said. The county invests money in banks and a state investment pool and the interest goes into the county’s general fund.

“With the interest rates going down, because of all the fed moves and treasury rates being so low because of the national problems, unfortunately the state pool run by the state treasurer doesn’t get very many good investments to invest in,” he said in a previous interview.

The county is investing about a third of its money into the state’s investment pool. The amount rose this year due to changes in the law requiring banks to have collateral for all of the public money invested in the bank.

“Most banks have stopped receiving new and some have asked to have them all cleared out,” he said. “Unfortunately for us, and the county treasurers around the state, that means we have less selection of where to put our money,” he said.

The county is also waiting for about 7,000 people to pay their property tax. Pheasant said the county sent out about 1,200 more delinquent notices than last year. Presently, the county is 1.5 percent behind this time last year in property tax revenues.

“We do a lot of communicating with our taxpayers, but we can’t hold their hands all the time. They’re the ones who decide when they want to pay,” he said. “I’m not expecting to be that far below projections. Some people have chosen to delay payments.”

Commissioner Cindy Carter said the county was looking at ways to transfer money from other departments to help cover costs. She said there are plans to take some money from Grant County Public Works to pay for five sheriff patrol deputies.

“We can do this because it’s for road safety. They don’t do investigations. They just slow down (drivers,)” she said.

While the revenue is down, so is spending, Carter said. As of April, spending was about 4 percent lower throughout the county.

“Our spending is going well. It’s just our revenue piece that is not working with us like it should be,” she said.