State woes may hurt county budget

by Herald Staff Writer & Cameron Probert
| November 7, 2011 5:00 AM

EPHRATA - Issues with the state's budget could make Grant County's initial budget moot.

The county's preliminary budget, passed earlier this week, largely follows last year's budget, including the $35 million current expense fund. The fund includes the budgets for the sheriff's, prosecutor's, assessor's, treasurer's, auditor's and clerk's office, along with the departments of public defense and community development as well as district, juvenile and superior courts.

"We're trying to stay about the same level as we were last year," Chief Accountant Ken Holloway said. "We're waiting to see what the state does. We do not know of anything coming from that way."

At least two proposals in Gov. Chris Gregoire's 2011 supplemental budget could cause the county to cut the current expense fund. The state is forecasting a $1.4 billion revenue shortfall in it's budget for the remainder of the biennium.

"While my staff and I are preparing the formal supplemental operating budget for submission next month, today I offer a starting point to the conversation we must engage in to resolve our budget problem. Attached is a summary of alternatives I am considering to reach savings of approximately $2 billion," Gregoire wrote in a letter to the Legislature.

Two of the proposals, cutting criminal justice funding and rural economic development sales tax credit would impact the county's budget, Commissioner Richard Stevens said.

Grant County is one of 32 rural counties in the state receiving a 0.09 percent sales tax refund to fund improvements for streets, bridges, water and sewer systems and other projects aimed at economic development. The county presently splits the money between the Strategic Infrastructure Program and paying for loans on a Moses Lake wastewater facility and the Big Bend Community College ATEC building.

The governor proposed pulling at least half of the money for the program, if not all of it.

"We've got obligations to pay for the water system in Moses Lake out at the airbase, about 11 more years on that, and the same on the ATEC building that amounts to $350,000 a year," Stevens said. "If you don't have the money you made deals on, what do you do? We default on it, or we take it out of current expense money."

Grant County also receives about $700,000 in criminal justice assistance. The state provides about $42.1 million between all 39 counties for police, courts, jails, prosecutors, defense and victim advocates.

Stevens pointed out the money would come out of the current expense fund, leaving a possible $1.1 million hole in the current expense fund.

"So do you really have anything to spare?" he said. "Until we know that stuff at the end of November, what (the state) is going to do, we're kind of in a state of flux ... So we're going to hold the line on the budget pretty tight for right now."

While the problems with the state are causing problems, Stevens said the county is about 2.8 percent under its budget.

"That's a misleading figure because right at the end of the year a lot of people spend out their budgets for stuff," he said. "They do some stuff that they needed maybe a new printer or copier that cost $10,000, so they spend some of what is left over in their budget. So what ends up total unspent, we don't know until the middle of January."

The county has succeeded in adding to its reserves during the past year, Holloway said, but hasn't reached where officials want to be.

"When we started going down in '08, we were at $4.2, $4.4 million," Stevens said. "I really think we need about three months of operation in reserve, for us that's close to $7.5 million. If we ever get there or not, I don't know."

The county is still in the process of negotiating contracts with the unions. It's unknown whether any salary increases will take place. The county and the unions agreed not to offer any salary increases during the past year. Holloway said the county has kept to the agreement.

"We even stopped any step increases," Holloway said. "The employees have been very understanding through all of this."