County begins search for $1.5 million

Negotiations over Whitman County’s 2012 budget have begun, with county leaders looking to close a $1.5 million chasm between expected spending and revenue in the coming year.

“It’s gonna be interesting,” predicted Commissioner Pat O’Neill.

Heads of departments in the county’s current expense operating fund face bottom line revenue projection of $12,109,117, which is $1,549,495 short of the $13,658,612 they expect to spend next year.

Sheriff Brett Myers, who runs the largest department in the county’s operating budget, went over his list of needed expenditures for county commissioners Tuesday morning.

“What makes us different?” he asked commissioners, as he stripped off his bulletproof vest, unloaded his gun and took off his tool belt.

“I’m wearing $2,500 of protective equipment on my body at all times,” he said.

As he showed pictures of criminals and their victims on a projection screen, Myers warned commissioners high-profile drug dealers and gangs are beginning to show up in Whitman County.

“It isn’t just in the Tri-Cities or Yakima,” he said. “It comes to Asotin and to Whitman counties every day.”

During his nine-year tenure as Sheriff, Myers reported the annual amount of infractions referred by his officers to the court system rose from 864 in 2002 to 2,200 last year.

He then told commissioners keeping his budget at this year’s $3,099,886 level would force him to lay off a deputy.

Myers currently has 18 road deputies, 13 jailers and four administrators on staff.

Myers lowered his 2012 budget request by about $150,000 during Tuesday’s meeting, dropping a request for $71,000 to fund an IT position under his watch and offering up another $70,000 to $85,000 in small item savings.

His original budget request for next year was $3,371,009.

Commissioner Greg Partch, who has butted heads with Myers over his budget in past years, said he was impressed by Myers’ presentation, but noted the pending $1.5 million deficit.

One of the bigger spending requests came from the Information Technology department, which has a $600,000 list of items in need of replacement or upgrade.

Partch said approximately $400,000 of that is needed now to make the county’s tech systems work properly.

Among those items is a higher-powered server, new telephones and an adequate number of licenses to run the New World accounting software on more computers.

“When you’re running a powerhouse like New World, you’ve got to have the right equipment and infrastructure,” said David Ledbetter, financial administrator. “Otherwise, it’s like putting bad gas in a Ferrari.”

Partch noted new revenues could be aiding the county’s budget prospect. Construction of Palouse Wind’s wind farm in northern Whitman County is expected to sales tax revenues off construction. The turbine project price tag has been reported at $170 million.