Sheriff budget cut by $337,000
EPHRATA — The Grant County commissioners finished a portion of its 2011 with cuts to the sheriff’s office and the Washington State University Extension Office.
The commissioners finished the $35 million current expense fund budget Monday morning, ending roughly $1.5 million higher than last year. The current expense budget includes district, superior and juvenile courts, the assessor’s, treasurer’s, auditor’s, prosecutor’s, sheriff’s and clerk’s offices as well as the building and planning departments.
The cuts were designed to add to the county’s reserve. During previous years, the reserve dwindled to the point that the county needed to borrow money from other areas to keep the county operating.
The commissioners was hoping to save $1.7 million this year, but after lower than expected revenues, they expect to have only $1 million in reserves, Commissioner Cindy Carter said.
“Hopefully at the end of 2011, our reserve will be $3.1 million,” she said. “If we could get $4 or $5 million — it’s not going to happen this year — but we have to start building, so we’re not running on registered warrants.”
The commissioners cut $87,000 from the extension office’s proposed $362,000 budget for 2011. The decision came after a suggestion from Carter to roll back the office’s budget to about $93,000.
“What we have to pay is $93,570. That is the agreement between WSU and Grant County,” she said. “So basically, we’re $269,000 above and beyond what we’re (required to spend.)”
The money pays for part of the salaries for extension office staff, including administrative assistants and a master gardener, Carter said.
Commissioner Richard Stevens disagreed with cutting the office back to $93,000, instead suggesting setting it at $300,000.
“I think it’s important to our county as an agriculture-based (county),” he said. “But these are tough economic times.”
Treasurer Darryl Pheasant asked if the commissioners had any statistics for what similar counties are doing. He suggested looking at Yakima, saying they have more money and a larger population, but have a similar amount of agriculture.
Commissioners office staff contacted Yakima County and learned that it cut the office from seven full-time positions to funding one half-time position, Carter said.
Stevens suggested cutting the office’s budget to $275,000.
The commissioners also decided to cut about $337,000 from the sheriff’s office’s $6.9 million budget request. The decision left money in the budget for a 2 percent pay raise approved last year.
The commissioners originally suggested removing all of a $442,000 transfer from public works, but decided to remove only half of it. The public works money is used for the sheriff’s traffic division.
Carter and Stevens said the traffic division was supposed to make the money back in additional tickets. Instead Stevens said the division has lost money.
The other portion of the cut came after Carter suggested the sheriff’s deputies drive cars, instead of using cars and motorcycles. She remarked the commissioners can’t tell another elected official what to cut, but removed money equal to replacing the vehicles.
“In reality, (the budget) was better than I anticipated,” Chief Deputy Dave Ponozzo said, adding the decisions about where to cut will come from Sheriff-elect Tom Jones.