County to open 2010 in the red

Whitman County commissioners plan to enter 2010 with a budget deficit of as much as $250,000 that will be balanced out of working cash reserves from part of the county’s general fund.

Through October of this year, the county’s cash account stood at $2,583,412, which is $471,674 over the 10-year average. To meet the budget deficit, the county will tap those cash accounts.

The plan calls for moving cash accounts between different departments where budget deficits are expected to appear.

Commissioner Greg Partch, longest tenured of the three county commissioners, said 2010 will be the first year the county will open with a spending plan in the red since he first took office in 2000.

“This is completely new territory,” Partch said Tuesday.

End of year gaps between spending and revenue are regularly balanced with working capital, but commissioners are now looking at passing a budget for the coming year that relies on a cash infusion from cash accounts.

Hearings on the 2010 budget proposal are scheduled for Dec. 7 and Dec. 21. Commissioners are expected to pass the budget following the Dec. 21 hearing.

Commissioner Michael Largent, who in June told the Gazette that balancing a budget with working capital would be “financially irresponsible,” said desperate times call for desperate measures.

“These are unusual times,” he said.

Both Partch and Commissioner Pat O’Neill proposed supplementing the budget with $200,000, while Largent proposed a $250,000 cash infusion.

A portion of that amount will be used to cover the $113,000 the 2009 budget is expected to be in red at the end of the year.

Largent cautioned, though, that covering a deficit by removing capital from the cash flow would jeopardize the county’s financial standing, given the nearly $600,000 monthly payroll expense.

“We cannot spend more than we have over time. Because otherwise you end up broke,” said Largent.

Funds from the cash account will be used to infuse the budgets of various county departments to lessen the need for spending cuts.

In a workshop session Monday, commissioners outlined the departments they thought could operate with a lower budget than managers have proposed. The three, though, differed on which departments would have to further trim their budgets and which would receive the cash bailout.

In pure dollars, the largest proposed cuts were in the sheriff’s proposed budget. Commissioners’ proposals ranged from $67,200 to $100,000 cuts in the budget.

Most of that amount would come from positions that will become vacant next year and will not be filled. Partch, who proposed the $100,000 cut, said Sheriff Brett Myers also needs to absorb higher medical costs for deputies in his budget.

Changes to the county’s insurance plans means the county will have to pay nearly $28,000 more to insure deputies and their families next year. The county pays the cost of insuring deputies, and 60 percent of the cost of insuring their families.

The parks department stands to feel the greatest effects from commissioners’ cuts.

Partch suggested cutting the department’s nearly $325,000 budget by $25,000; Largent suggested a $30,000 cut.

O’Neill suggested the biggest cut, a 15 percent reduction of $48,484.

“It’s a non-mandated deal,” O’Neill said, explaining his position. “There’s no RCW that says we have to have parks. So if we have to mothball them for a while, that’s what we have to do.”

Commissioners did not cut the budgets of the finance or information technology departments. Both Largent and Partch said they did not want to cut those departments because they will be primarily responsible for bringing the new accounting system online.

Partch also noted he did not want to cut the finance budget because of the county’s consistent problems with year-end financial statements. State auditors have fingered the county for submitting those statements late and inaccurately for each of the past six years.

Partch said that alone means the county can not take any resources away from the department.

He added the finance department may become a centralized office for accounting, taking over those duties from individual departments.

“Maybe we can take that work away from departments that don’t have the time or the expertise and shift it to the department that does have the expertise,” said Partch.

Commissioners were planning to work this week to mesh their individual budget proposals in time for Monday’s budget hearing.

Complicating that process is the fact that they are not scheduled to meet until then. The state’s Open Public Meetings Act forbids a majority of members of a governing body from discussing or even jointly considering a decision on public policy without advertising the meeting.