County bosses trim budgets

Kootenai County department supervisors had until the close of business Friday to determine how to cut their budgets by 5 percent.

“We’re looking at shortfalls in major revenues from the state and in local revenues as well,” said county Finance Director David McDowell. In particular, all county revenues related to land development are dropping, including recorders fees, and planning, zoning and building fees, he said.

The Kootenai County Board of Commissioners asked all elected officials and department heads to identify holdbacks in their operating and capital budgets that would add up to 5 percent. McDowell said that would give the county an $800,000 cushion that would help avoid unexpected cuts later in the year. None of the cuts applies to personnel, McDowell said.

“At this point, the amounts that are identified will remain in your respective budgets, and you will need to proceed as if those funds are no longer available,” reads a Dec. 1 memo the county commissioners sent to department heads.

Recorders office activity has fallen to levels not seen since November 2000, said Recording Supervisor Cheryl Reed, who added that 2005 was the “all-time highest.” Reed said the office will save money on copying fees and on maintenance agreements for microfiche readers citizens use to view documents.

“That’s been down anyway, so I knew we could save some money,” Reed said. “The bottom’s got to fall out somewhere.”

Sheriff Rocky Watson, however, said crime generally increases in tough economic times and he’s concerned about the effect on public safety of any budget cuts. Sheriff’s deputies already are among the lowest paid law enforcement officers in the region, he said.

“Because of that, we have staffing issues and because of that we have a high response time to life-threatening crimes,” Watson said. “Anytime you start cutting back, it doesn’t matter where you cut, all that affects public safety.”

Watson said 18 agencies are funded by the county budget, but only seven of them are mandated by law. In difficult economic times, he said he’d prefer to see the commissioners reduce nonmandated services.

However, commission Chairman Rick Currie dismissed that notion.

“We are all in this together. Obviously we do have mandated services that we will continue to provide, but we are all in this together,” Currie said. “A good portion of our budget is mandated by statute.”

Next week, McDowell will summarize the proposals he received from department heads and will make budget cutting recommendations to the board.

“They’ll look at what departments are seeing what levels of activity,” McDowell said. “We’re going to have to be ready to adapt to what reality is going forward.”