Grant Co. 2025 budget approved

EPHRATA — Grant County Commissioners unanimously passed the county’s 2025 budget with modifications to the Grant County Sheriff’s Office fund and cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, to be addressed in the upcoming week when they consider a resolution to adjust GCSO’s budget.  

The COLA will go down in a budget adjustment to 2.8% because of the consumer price index; the current budget sets it at 3%, according to Commissioner Danny Stone. 

The sheriff’s office is negotiating pay raises, so the budget will be adjusted accordingly, Stone said. 

“I think that depending on what years lie ahead, whether they're lean years or years of abundance, there might be some adjustments, but at this point, I feel good about where we're landing with the budget,” Stone said. 

The total expenditure and revenue budgeted for the county is around $318.94 million. The general fund is anticipated to have around $70.37 million in both expenditures and revenues.  

Amanda Kim was hired this year as Grant County’s chief accountant to handle finances and Commissioner Cindy Carter said most of the accounting team was new, which resulted in some challenges. However, she said, she thinks the new team handled the process well.

“It's been a little tough,” Carter said. “We've got a new team that we put together. The team from last year is gone. We have a new chief accountant ... We're doing software implementation. It's been a little hectic this year, a little more hectic than normal years, and we started a month or two earlier than we really needed to, so, we didn't have the actual figure.” 

Carter said she had concerns about the county taking $4 million out of its general reserve fund.  

“We have a pretty healthy reserve,” Carter said. “It's not that we got a lot of new revenue, it's that our expenses were down. I am always reluctant to take money out of our reserve to develop a budget.” 

In general, however, Carter said she thinks Grant County is in good financial health.

“Financially, our county is doing very well,” Carter said. “I have talked to other counties that are struggling. Grant County is where we've got agriculture. We've got industry ... We are very, very fortunate in Grant County. We are one of the few counties (where) when times have gotten difficult, we have not had to do furloughs or lay off a bunch of people.” 

General Fund 

As for the current budget, without the sheriff's office and COLA funds adjusted, this is the order of expenses from largest to smallest for the county. 

The most money is allocated to the sheriff at around $16.8 million. Second is the jail at about $10.5 million and third is an operating transfer of roughly $5.1 million.  

Nearly $4.8 million was allocated to the district court. Facilities and maintenance were allocated roughly $4.48 million. The prosecuting attorney is anticipated to spend about $4.46 million and public defense has an anticipated $4.3 million in expenses.  

The assessor’s office was allocated nearly $2.1 million for expenditures and the county clerk’s office was allotted almost $1.9 million. Superior court was designated around $1.6 million. Miscellaneous general government was awarded around $1.58 million and the auditor’s office was granted roughly $1.56 million.  

Planning expenses were estimated at nearly $1.4 million. Then commissioners were budgeted around $1.36 million. The coroner was allocated nearly $1.2 million and the treasurer was awarded about $1 million.  

The rest of the expenses were all under $1 million — human resources received nearly $996,000, capital outlay was anticipated at about $778,000, Washington State University cooperative extension was granted almost $439,000, elections received roughly $558,000, central services was designated about $207,000. The museum received $175,000, the board of equalization was granted about $48,000 and the disability board was devoted $1,500. 

Public Works 

The county has budgeted around $30.6 million for both expenditures and revenue for county roads. It also budgeted $25,000 for paths and trails in both expenditures and revenue. 

Grant County budgeted $469,000 for the courthouse improvement bond and around $118,000 for museum construction.  

For solid waste management, there is an estimated expenditure and revenue of about $12.45 million.  

County Resources 

The county has budgeted around $22.23 million for mental health resources for the cities within Grant County. There is also $2.8 million budgeted for New Hope and domestic violence prevention and resources.  

For housing resources, the county budgeted $80,000 for affordable housing, $450,000 for homeless housing, $40,000 for a homeless housing administrator and $250,000 for affordable and supportive housing.  

The fairgrounds will receive roughly $2.4 million for the following year.  

Criminal Justice 

Grant County allocated roughly $7.9 million for criminal justice sales and use tax for both revenues and expenses. There was also around $4.8 million designated to criminal justice debt services. The county granted $300,000 for jail concessions. It also budgeted about $223,000 for crime victims' compensation and $65,000 for trial court improvement.  

Law and justice was awarded $1.2 million.  

There are two construction projects for criminal justice in the budget with $80 million for the jail construction and roughly $1 million for the Multi Agency Communications Center bond.  

Human Resources 

The county allocated nearly $3.2 million for employee training, growth and recognition. The Grant County administration received around $4.4 million.  

For insurance, the county is anticipating about $3.2 million. The employee benefits are as follows – inter-fund benefits around $13.4 million, payroll benefits $441,000, retirement benefits $234,000 and reserve inter-fund benefits at about $507,000. There is also an estimated employment compensation of $155,000.