Whitcom fund could face "substantial decrease"

County commissioners Monday discussed setbacks in funding for Whitcom.

“It’s projected for 2019 Whitcom is going to receive $677,000. This is 56 percent of what Whitcom received in 2016. It is a substantial decrease,” Commissioner Dean Kinzer said.

In 2016 Whitcom received $1.2 million.

At the beginning of 2018 it was noted that there would be budget cuts to Washington state 911 coordination agencies.

The decrease in funds came from the state 911 running two systems at once unexpectedly.

“The state had two parallel programs and they were supposed to implement one and take away the other,” Kinzer said. “For some reason, they were still running two programs. This is why local 911 emergency centers are not getting the amount of funding they had previously.”

Commissioner Michael Largent said from his understanding this isn’t an isolated incident for Whitman County.

Largent will attend the Washington State Association of Counties Board of Directors meeting Friday, Sept. 20, and plans to bring up this issue.

“I’m going to see if I can push this issue a bit,” Largent said. “Our only hope on this end would be a legislative event.”