County deficit a divider

County budget meetings ended last week with what turned into the most heated commissioner meeting of the year.

The dispute, between Commissioners Mark Richard and Todd Mielke, amounted to a debate about who was the strongest budget hawk in spending $2.7 million more than the county’s revenue projections for 2007.

The tension highlights what could become a tighter budget in 2008, when the county won’t be able rely on reserves – as long as officials hold to their vow to stop eating into their emergency fund.

There’s also some apprehension because 2008 will bring new employee contracts with more than a dozen bargaining units.

Next year “is going to be a horrendous year for us,” County CEO Marshall Farnell told the commissioners.

Others, however, say the budget predictions appear overly gloomy.

“In the 28 years that I’ve worked here, they’ve pretty much said that every time they’re going into contract negotiations,” said Detective David Skogen, president of the Spokane County Deputy Sheriffs Association.

For the first time in recent years, the county experienced no increase in medical benefits for 2007. Still, county leaders have said after several hefty price jumps they’ve warned union leaders that they’ll be arguing for employees to pay a greater share of their health care costs.

Skogen said he’s optimistic that contract talks will be smooth, but hinted health care could be a point of contention.

“At first blush it would be my take that if there’s no increase to the county, I’m not sure why we would have to take on more (of the cost),” Skogen said.

Budget summary

Earlier this month, commissioners passed a budget that shows the county spending $141.2 million in 2007 and taking in $138.5 million, mostly from taxes. They determined how they would spend the county’s revenue (including 2 percent cuts for most departments), but waited until last week to divvy the $2.7 million in deficit spending.

Part of the budget includes increasing property taxes for the county’s general fund by 8 percent, a decision that will increase the tax bill by $13 to the owner of a $100,000 home if its increase in assessed value was about average.

If all goes as planned, the county will be left with reserves of about $14 million, an amount most agree is a healthy emergency fund. But after using reserves to balance the budget six of the last seven years, ending the practice could be a tough habit to break.

“We’re going to balance this budget next year come hell or high water,” Richard said.

The $2.7 million

Richard argued for substantially reducing contributions to outside economic development groups in favor of restoring some of the money cut from courts and the sheriff’s office. He said some of the donations amounted to “pork barrel spending.”

Mielke said it was unwise to use reserves to restore budget cuts because it could cause more financial difficulty in 2008. But he fought for higher donations to outside economic development agencies, a decision he said could help the budget by promoting economic development.

Commissioner Phil Harris voted to go with higher spending on both counts.

In the end, commissioners returned about $460,000 to departments devoted to public safety (as advocated by Richard) and gave $1.3 million to outside agencies (as advocated by Mielke). They opted not to touch $900,000 unless an emergency arises.

One of the biggest disagreements was over a request from the Fox Theater for $200,000. Mielke argued for the full amount because the renovated theater will be a regional attraction that will boost the economy. Richard said he agreed with the worthiness of the project but couldn’t justify spending more than the $35,000 that the city has committed.

Mielke said he wasn’t going to decide on Fox funding based on the city’s position.

“This has been on everyone’s list for a long time,” he said.

Mielke joined Harris in supporting a $165,000 allocation to the Fox.