Grant County expenses lower than expected through November

EPHRATA — Reductions in expenses, and some help from federal coronavirus relief funds, meant Grant County reached the end of November with more cash in its current expense fund than in the same period in 2019.

Grant County Treasurer Darryl Pheasant said the county had about $3 million more in the expense fund at the end of November than county officials expected. The county had about $42.8 million revenue in the current expense fund, he said, and spent about $39 million.

Most of the gain can be attributed to a reduction in expenses, he said.

“We had a lot of departments really tighten up (spending),” he said.

Along with reductions in spending, the county received money to pay some expenses from the federal government. Among other things, those funds paid some salaries and benefits for county employees.

Pheasant cited an example from his own office. Half of the staff worked from home to avoid having a positive coronavirus case shut down the entire treasurer’s office. The federal funds paid the salaries and benefits of employees working from home, he said.

The county also is eligible for federal funding designed to offset costs of retrofitting and remodeling projects, and equipment purchases made to reduce the possibility of spreading the coronavirus. County officials were required to pay the costs up front and be reimbursed later. Those expenses haven’t been paid yet and Pheasant estimated the county has about $2.9 million in requests waiting for reimbursement.

As of the end of November, the county has received about $1.5 million more in sales tax than in the first 11 months of 2019. In earlier interviews, Pheasant said the increase appears to be tied to a change in buying habits.

The coronavirus outbreak prompted state officials to order many businesses to close, sometimes for months, or reduced the number of people allowed in a building at any given time. As a result, people opted to do more shopping online.

State law allocates sales tax revenue to the locality where the order was placed. The county receives sales tax receipts for transactions made in the unincorporated areas of the county.

Property tax receipts are higher than projected in the 2020 budget, Pheasant said. In an earlier interview he attributed that in part to a boom in housing construction and existing home sales.

But the pandemic has had a significant negative impact on other parts of county government. Pheasant said the tourism fund will finish the year with about $750,000 in its account, compared to about $1.5 million at the end of 2019.

Pheasant said that’s a reflection of the closure of the Gorge Amphitheatre, which canceled its entire 2020 season, and the lost sales and admissions taxes. Most events were canceled in 2020, which meant fewer tourism dollars were spent, but there were some expenses nonetheless, Pheasant said.