Grant County lays off employees

EPHRATA — Grant County laid off four employees while balancing its budget.

The commissioners asked departments to prepare budgets from the same amounts as the 2010 budget, including the 1.7 percent cut they asked for in July.

When they received the preliminary budget at the beginning of November the current expense fund faced a $1.3 million deficit with almost every department turning in budgets above 2010 levels, according to county records.

The current expense fund includes district, superior and juvenile courts, the sheriff’s, prosecutor’s, assessor’s and treasurer’s offices along with the Washington State University Extension Office and the building and planning departments.

“We’re trying to make it as painless as possible,” Commissioner Cindy Carter said. “One of these years I’m thinking the budget will be easier.”

Carter didn’t say what departments the layoffs occurred in. She said the positions were secretarial and were part of the current expense fund’s budget.

“Two were notified (Thursday). One was the end of last week,” she said. “We have a jury clerk’s position and we have a position in public works opening up. So employees that are laid off in one department can apply for those positions.”

Much of the county’s deficit was caused by increases in insurance costs and last year’s 2 percent salary increase. The county’s medical plan costs rose 5 percent this year and will rise another 8 percent next year on the recommendation of the health insurance committee.

The county normally doesn’t include the costs of the increases into the budget, instead the commissioners give the departments more money to cover the costs as the year goes on, Carter said. This allows them to give the departments the money they need without having extra money in the budgets.

“This is the first year it’s come back to haunt us,” she said. “Right now, it’s so tight and there’s not a lot of wiggle room.”

The commissioners approved the 2 percent salary increases in January after freezing “step increases.”

Prior to the freeze, new employees received a pay increase after six months and a year, depending on their evaluations, Human Resources Director Tammie Hechler said in a previous interview. After the first year, employees could move up a step each year depending on their evaluations. Each position has seven pay steps.

The commissioners decided 2 percent was all the county could afford, Commissioner Richard Stevens said in a previous interview.

On top of the salary increases, the departments are also trying to find money to cover their employees health insurance costs. The departments pay $441 per insured employee this year, Hechler said.

A 17-person committee determined the county needed to increase health insurance premiums by 4.6 percent to cover increased costs and an additional 3.4 percent to meet new state regulations, according to county records.

“The county contracts with a broker and they do actuarial studies,” Hechler said. “The broker looks at the last two years ... they project the trends.”

The money from the departments goes into a county-controlled account to pay for employees medical claims. The state’s Office of Financial Management recently required the county to double the amount of reserves in the account.

“We’ve had some high claimants,” Carter said. “We have an employee ... who was at the $2 million cap. We’ve had some unforeseen medical emergencies.”