Sheriff Myers: Final budget will cost county deputy

Whitman County taxpayers will pay one percent more in property taxes next year but will see a reduction in services under the $53 million 2010 budget passed Monday by county commissioners.

Sheriff Brett Myers’ budget was the last in the $12,123,360 operating fund to be set after the three commissioners came to a last-minute agreement on the sheriff’s bottom line.

Myers said Monday that his 2010 budget, which accounts for nearly one-fourth of the overall general fund spending, will have a direct impact on services, and he predicted he will have to lay off a road deputy.

“The very real situation we’re facing is – to run our office at a reasonable staffing level to keep up services – we will have to very strongly look at a layoff,” Myers told commissioners in a workshop session prior to Monday’s final budget vote.

Despite increasing the county’s general fund tax revenue by $40,027, the one percent allowed under Initiative 747, the county will open 2010 with a deficit budget. They plan to tap $156,888 out of operating cash reserves to cover expenditures listed in the budget.

“This is not easy. This is going to be a very tough year,” said Commissioner Greg Partch. “We’re going to use over a quarter million out of our cash to balance our budget. That’s not chump change.”

Partch’s quarter million drop lumps the current year budget loss with the $156,888 top planned for next year.

Cash builds up in the county’s budget when unspent funds from various departments are returned to the general fund at the end of each year. The plan to use that money would cut a subsequent amount from the 2011 bottom line.

Tapping an additional $44,000 of that cash, Sheriff Myers said, would have given him the flexibility to avoid laying off a deputy.

As it stands now, Myers said his $2,904,537 budget for the coming year includes absolute bottom line expense predictions for fuel, overtime, equipment and food for jail inmates.

“We’re so tight that any increase in food and gas prices, or one big medical bill from the jail, is going to be the difference between if we make or break our budget,” Myers said Monday.

Myers and three deputies attended the workshop session in an attempt to lobby commissioners to meet his funding request.

Deputy Brian Keller, along with wife Nikki, made an impassioned plea to commissioners to avoid further cuts to the sheriff’s budget. Keller is the newest deputy in the sheriff’s office, and as such would be the first to be cut from the payroll.

Commissioners Partch and Pat O’Neill, though, said other solutions could be found to keep Keller on the force.

Myers submitted a 2010 budget request for $2,947,731. Partch proposed cutting $68,178 from Myers’ proposal. O’Neill last week dropped his version of the sheriff’s budget $44,000 to $2,904,537.

Sometime over the past week, Partch agreed to accept O’Neill’s bottom line.

Partch contended deputies could cut the sheriff’s need for funding by offering up concessions on pay raises scheduled for next year. Under the terms of a contract signed in late 2007 with the deputies guild, officers are scheduled to receive four percent raises next year.

“Everybody else has been part of the solution except the deputies,” Partch told the deputies at the workshop session.

Last week, commissioners decided the county’s non-union employees will not receive step raises. Negotiators are currently asking unions representing the courthouse, road and solid waste employees to do without step raises next year.

Undersheriff Ron Rockness noted deputies have not been asked to give up their raises.

Commissioner Michael Largent said it is not necessary for deputies to give up their raises.

“If we want concessions from the guild, it’s incumbent on us to ask them,” said Largent. “Obviously we can’t sustain this use of cash over time, but right now we’ve got the money to cover it.”

Over the past two weeks, Largent proposed fulfilling the sheriff’s funding request, while Partch and O’Neill decided exactly how much they would cut.

Partch said it is up to the unions to offer any concession.

“We have a contract with them. I’m going to honor that,” said Partch.

Rockness also noted commissioners could tap more of the county’s cash balance to prevent the cut.

“How bad does it have to get before we spend our reserves?” asked Rockness. “If I had a few dollars in savings, I’d use it now.”

“That’s the difference between you and me,” replied Partch. “You would have spent that reserve years ago.”

O’Neill said using that cash may be a possibility later in the year. He told Myers he would be open to a budget amendment during 2010 if the sheriff’s expenses required a lay-off.

“I’m an optimist. I truly believe things are going to get better,” said O’Neill, noting the progressing construction of a Wal-Mart in Pullman will add tax revenue to the county’s coffers.

“Before you lay somebody off, you come back with a budget amendment, and you will get your $43,194 back,” O’Neill told the sheriff.

Partch was also open to an amendment, but was less optimistic. He said the state’s $2.9 billion budget crunch will likely burden county government with more requirements and more expenses.

Largent called the amendment option an “imprudent budgeting strategy.” He said the county should budget for the highest expected spending plan and amend the budget downward if costs come in below anticipations.

O’Neill said the unpredictable economy means amendments will be a necessary evil next year.

Largent did not try to sway his fellow commissioners to fund the sheriff at requested levels.

“We had the sheriff himself, as well as a deputy and his wife lobby for that level to no effect,” he said.

Largent said he knew he could not convince Partch or O’Neill to fund the sheriff at his requested level.

“At some point in time, you have to vote on something,” said Largent. “When commissioner O’Neill took a radical 180 degree turn last week, I knew I had lost the vote.”

O’Neill originally proposed a budget that was $806 higher than the sheriff’s request. He reversed course last week, saying his proposal was unfair to other county departments who have had to cut their budgets.

Other departments will adjust their services based on cuts.

Prosecutor Denis Tracy said cuts will mean he will close his office to the public for an hour or two each day. Auditor Eunice Coker said she is considering a similar move.

The 2010 current expense budget is a $44,737 drop from the $12,168,097 current year budget. The overall budget, which includes funds that are dedicated for special purposes, increased eight percent, from $49,219,904 in 2009 to $53,017,103 in 2010.

The county’s actual tax levy rate will fall from $1.49 per $1,000 assessed value to $1.48. Despite the one percent raise in overall tax revenue, levy rate will decrease because of higher assessed values on property.

Commissioners also increased the county road tax by one percent for 2010. That amounts to a $19,377 increase to $1,964,911.