Grant County Commissioners 'working on' proposed $135.1 million budget for 2019

EPHRATA — Grant County Commissioners are proposing a roughly $135.1 million budget for 2019, a roughly 11 percent increase from the 2018 budget commissioners approved last year.

“We’re still working on it,” said County Commissioner Cindy Carter.

Carter said the three commissioners were going to spend much of next week “going back and looking at” capital expenditures — major one-time purchases — such as a new vehicle for the coroner’s office, new bulletproof vests for the sheriff’s office and a vehicle to transport jail inmates.

“The coroner needs a new vehicle,” Carter added, explaining that there are only two vehicles for the coroner and his two assistants. “If we have an accident with more than two fatalities, it’s a problem.”

In 2018, the commissioners scrambled to make roughly $500,000 in cuts to balance the county’s budget, including contracting out juvenile detention services to Martin Hall in Medical Lake and contracting out cleaning services at the county courthouse.

“We ended up saving about $1 million,” Carter said.

However, the commissioner said no such cuts were expected this year.

Carter said she expects the commissioners to have a final budget ready for a public hearing on Wednesday, Dec. 5, and should be ready to adopt next year’s budget that day.

The county budget is structured into 50 separate funds, including the general fund, which pays for ongoing county government, such as law enforcement, the jail and the court. Other funds include the road fund, which provides for maintenance of the county roads, the mental health fund that pays for Grant Integrated Services, and so forth.

The largest fund in the proposed budget is $43.8 million for the general fund, a nearly 8 percent increase from the approved 2018 general fund budget. The county is proposing spending $9.4 million on the Sheriff’s Office (an increase of $1 million over 2018), $6.5 million on the jail (an increase of roughly $800,000) and roughly $6.6 million on the county prosecutor’s and public defender’s offices combined.

The county is also proposing to spend roughly $23.8 million on maintaining the county roads in 2019, a slight increase from 2018, and around $11.7 on Grant Integrated Services, the county’s mental health provider.