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December 6, 2009 in City
Think you could do better with budget? Go for it
Later this week, Spokane County commissioners will take a $10.5 million whack out of the county’s general fund budget.
They’d need $146.8 million to maintain the status quo and can only count on about $136.3 million. Law says they can’t bet on an improving economy and budget in the red.
For months, the commissioners and the department heads who report to them, as well as the folks who are elected separately to handle other county functions, have wrestled over what and where to cut. When they settle on the final numbers – possibly Tuesday – some people will be sad, some mad, and some really mad. Nobody’s gonna be smiling.
With governments everywhere cutting budgets, the county’s $10.5 million problem may not seem like such a big deal. The state’s budget, after all, is projected to be about $2.6 billion out of whack for the final 18 months of the biennium. By comparison, $10.5 mil is a rounding error.
But there’s a basic fact about the county budget: About 80 percent of it goes to pay the people who do the county’s work – work it’s required by law to do, like arrest, try, prosecute, defend and punish bad guys. Or figure out what a piece of property is worth, collect the taxes on it, put that money into safe investments and pay it out to cities, towns and districts that have some claim on it. Register vehicles and provide license plates or tabs, file documents that say who owns a piece of property, who is married and who is divorced.
Some things the county does, like pave roads and operate the 911 system, have a special tax or fee that pays for all or most of the cost.
Reporters know that government budget stories generally cause eyes to glaze over. People who read them closely often insist they could build a better budget, given half a chance.
So we’re going to give you the chance to make cuts to the county’s payroll. Here you’ll find some handy graphics by Spokesman-Review online specialist Andrew Zahler, a link to a spreadsheet listing every county job paid from the general fund, and the annual salary. We took out the names – this is an exercise in budgeting, not personalities.
There’s about $89 million in salaries. Because we’re only listing wages, not benefits, and personnel costs are only about 80 percent of the budget, we’re challenging you to find $6.4 million in wage cuts. You can’t cut everyone’s salary by a certain percent: That would mean breaking contracts the county has with its unions. You can’t cut the most expensive people in each position or job category because they’re probably the most senior, and layoffs go by reverse seniority. You can’t fire elected officials, because the law says the county must have them.
As you cut a position from the spreadsheet, the totals for each department and the overall budget will go down. When your budget gets to about $82.5 million, you’re good.
You may notice quickly that law enforcement is more than half the county’s budget. Cut deputies and crimes reported in the county or Spokane Valley will grow. Cut drug investigators and expect more drug use and the crime that comes with it. Cut prosecutors and the people arrested may not go to court for months. Cut jailers and some of the people that need to be in jail will be let out.
Cut “bureaucrats,” you say? OK, but to get the needed cuts out of what’s left, you’ll need a cleaver, not a scalpel. Whack the auditor’s office and expect long waits to get license tabs, record the deed to the house you bought or any other document you need to file. Cut the assessor’s staff and the county falls behind on figuring out what property is worth and what taxes can be collected.
Cut waste, fraud and abuse, you say? Sorry, but in a real government budget, that’s not a line item. Real budgeting is much harder, and this is an extremely simplified version of the salary piece of the budget puzzle.
Have at it, and good luck.
Spin Control is a weekly column by political reporter Jim Camden. It also appears with daily posts, reader comments and other features online at spokesman.com/ blogs/spincontrol.
Romney/Paul split weighing on county GOP 
empyrius on December 06 at 8:32 a.m.
The link to the spreadsheet is broken. First and foremost quit persecuting/prosecuting any and all marijuana related activities: decriminalize marijuana immediately! You would find that the 10.5 million “whack” would quickly be eliminated.
Spokane’s gravest drug-related crimes are linked to either meth or prescription drugs: prescription drugs for crying out loud! Drug enforcement should be solely dedicated to busting meth labs, but the small time users send to rehab/school, but do not keep arrresting these people and placing undue, and counterproductive, burden upon the judicial system.
Bust those unions up that protect City/County jobs! This is supposed to be a “free”-market where people compete for jobs: there are thousands of Spokane citizens that would deliver the mail and work on our roads for half the guaranteed wages of the current employees! Bust up those evil unions! Wal-Mart employees cannot unionize, why in the Lord’s name should government workers be able to?!? Communists!
Quit giving government workers top-notch wages! We already know the government employs only the mediocre, so why should the mediocre be the best paid? Just say no to well-paid bureaucrats! Make these jobs competitive as a nation built upon the principles of a “free”-market should have to compete!
No more of the easy life for lifelong bureaucrats!
Just say no to wasteful and anti-democracy big government!
Ryan Pitts on December 06 at 8:36 a.m.
@empyrius - Not sure why the spreadsheet link isn’t working for you — it’s an Excel document, so perhaps your browser is trying to open it within the browser window itself, and it’s choking there.
You might try a right-click and “Save As” to download to your desktop. Here’s the direct link to the document:
http://media.spokesman.com/documents/2009/12/countypay_edited_outline.xls
liarsinnews on December 06 at 9:07 a.m.
Yeah, I think I could do better. If anyone believes they listen to the taxpayers without exemptions, try putting a tooth under your pillow tonight.
Fuschia on December 06 at 9:15 a.m.
“We took out the names – this is an exercise in budgeting, not personalities.”
What do personalities have to do with it?
Sounds like the Spokesman is doing the same thing that the Government does. Hindering transparency. and oh by the way.. all that information is Public Disclosable, so why the big coverup, just whom is the Spokesman protecting? Obviously not the taxpayers.
I’ll have to go do their exercise, before I do, how many and who are union/appointed/elected?
We should be doing the same exercise with the City of Spokane budget. We got quite a few employees making more than $100,000 a year with nothing more than a high school degree?
Fuschia on December 06 at 9:20 a.m.
Ryan and everyone else. Here is the link problem.
“www.spokesman.com/blogs/ spincontrol,”
They left a space before spincontrol.
It should be www.spokesman.com/blogs/spincontrol
Just cut/paste into your browser.
I also hate it when the Spokesman puts a period (.) after peoples email addresses too.
westside on December 06 at 9:26 a.m.
Ryan, link is missing….
Fuschia on December 06 at 9:45 a.m.
The link is there.. and here it is.
http://media.spokesman.com/documents/2009/12/countypay_edited_outline.xls
The problem is that graphics heavy chart takes a while to download and the link is unnaccessable until it finishes. Patience my lads.
Now how come the spreadsheet guru didnt right justify the Salaries/Pay column?
It seems to me that if the average Spokane income is about $28,000 then so should the average Spokane Public Servant.
There is a TON of bloated salaries there that are not justifiable in our locale and economy.
Any technician/admin assistant/paper pusher. $25,000 - $30,000.
Any College degreed worker bee position to include, deputy/attorney. $30,000 - $40000
Any Supervisor college degreed position $50,000- $55,000.
Any Deparment head/Judge/elected official. $55,000 - $60,000.
Any County Commissioner (not to include their relatives and you know whom I’m talking about). $60,000 - $65,000.
No person should make more than 10% of the persons whom are working under them. Japanese style.
You get a car/cell phone? You pay for it out of your own salary and take the deduction or you can drive your own hoopty/Cell plan.
You cause a lawsuit, loss or damage to the County? You pay for it. or you can get personal insurance like any other person/doctor etc.
Reach 30 years in the job, your retired and the person taking your job doesnt get the same pay. They begin back at the bottom of the totem pole.
You pay/contribute to your own medical/retirement program. If you want that fancy boat, then its up to you to sacrifice coverage/retirement.
Ok I;m going to go punch the numbers in and see how it shakes out.
Ryan Pitts on December 06 at 9:45 a.m.
@Fuchsia - Ah, I missed that link in the story text. Everything should be fixed now.
FWIW, those spaces in links happen when a story comes to the website out of our print system. When a URL breaks from one line to the next in the print story, it gets exported with a space in that spot. We try to catch and fix them all, but clearly there are some we miss. I apologize, I know it’s frustrating.
Fuschia on December 06 at 10:01 a.m.
Well after working with the spread sheet… they should have two columns.. what it was before and after with either a red or blue resulting cell to the right. So we can see the delta’s/numbers add up as we change the current numbers. Off to the right side should be the pie chart that reflects your changes.
Just starting at the top, there is so much bloat in just the Assessors department and the Auditors that I was able to save just a whole bundle right there.
The other caveat, is that to be a manager/supervisor and to have an assistant you have to have at LEAST 4 people directly underneath you. There is a few three people departments. Sup/Asst/Worker bee. There are a lot of positions that seem to be created to give supervisors more workers to pad their salary.
What the spread sheet doesnt show is the amount of job contracting that goes out because the people in the positions are incompetent, untrained, unwilling to do that specific work. thats an added cost.
Whats also missing is the cost for supporting these people. What is the Travel budget? Whose going where, for what, and whats it costing? Cars, perks, etc?
Telephone, utility, vehicles, gas, paperclips. Those add up also. Lets see the numbers on that stuff too.
and lawsuits and cost of them. The Jail Booking fee lawsuit cost at least $1,000,000 by the time you add up all the manpower/attorneys etc. they spent fighting that.
Fuschia on December 06 at 10:20 a.m.
Ryan, not a bad exercise to see what is put on the table for our public servants, but it needs contrast to the non-public/commercial sector.
Lets put up.. um lets say the wagess/salarys of the Spokesman Review employees to see how reasonable/unreasonable these amounts are. You know it would be one of those “transparency in the newsroom” things.
empyrius on December 06 at 11:23 a.m.
Good stuff Fuschia!
Thanks Ryan. Went to the local church and they were closed; gotta start changin me evil ways and see if I can get into a grad program! Gonzaga’s “Masters in Philosophy” doesn’t take felons: that is bullcrud. Can I get a “Masters in Theology” here; you know the thief/revolutionist crucified on Jesus’ left hand went to Heaven that very day! Can a brother get some love?!?
I may be the child of an angry God, but take pity on this wretch Lord!
Anyway . . .
“Assessor-Admin Total”. What is this? Is this for dudes to appraise “private” property? 2.3 million here alone! Need specifics!
“Auditor-Financial Services Total”. A million plus for the County Auditor???
“Board of Equalization Total”, $117,761.28 . What do they do?
Almost 2 million for “Buildings-Enforcement”? How much are those inspector’s getting paid individually? I want some of that action!!!!!
“CASA Total”. What is that?
“Civil Service Total”,
“CJAA Total”,
“CJS Total”. $600,000. What are these?
“Clerk-Administration Total”, 1.8 million?!? All staff must take an immediate pay cut; to perdition with the unions!
“Communications Total”, half a million? Quite the phone/internet package there eh?
“Community Service Total”, 2.5 million? K, what exactly are these “services”?
“District Court-Clerk Total”,
“District Court-Officers Total”,
“District Court-Operations Total”; 3 million. Pay cut, pay cut, pay cut!
“DSO Total”,
“EBP Total”, $170,000. What are these?
“Facilities-Trades/Grounds Total”, 1.3+ million. Cut this expense by 75%; Geiger crews do all maintenance other than the drug warehouse of course!
“Fair-Event Total”, 50 thousand. Cut completely!
“Hearing Examiner Total”,
“Human Resources Total”, seven hundred thousand?!? Outsource! I know some Mexican senoritas not picking apples this time of year …, and they will fill human resource positions for a quarter of the wage!
“JABG Total”,
“JAG 07 Total”, $100,000. What are these?
“Jail Total”, 11 million, &
“Jail Total Total”, 11 million. And why is there eleven million twice? And why if confinement expense are only less than 400 thousand, the “Jail Total” is 11 mil., and the “Jail Total Total” is 11 mil.? Hmmmm …: those guards are making some nice bank for guarding a virtual 24 hour locked-down facility . . .
“Juvenile-Administration Total”,
“Juvenile-Detention Total”,
“Juvenile-Probation Total”, 3.5 million. Why do we have so many juvenile delinquints? Is it b/c half of American marriages end in divorce? Is it b/c our ethos of “individual selfishness leads to the greater good”, is what it is, a most unholy lie! Is it b/c we make it hard for poor people to have abortions? What most certainly does not help is sending these at risk kids right back into the dysfunctional home life from whence most of them come!
empyrius on December 06 at 11:24 a.m.
“Medical Examiner Total”, 800,000. Immediate wage reductions!
“PA Total”, $390,238.56,
“Parks Total”, $971,294.34. I don’t know what “PA” represents, but one million dollars for parks???
PD-General Total, $5,941,935.84
Pre-Trial Services Total, $252,835.44
Prosecutor Total, $5,615,098.61
Prosecutor-Civil Total, $103,627.20
Prosecutor-Community Relicense Total, $71,323.92
Prosecutor-DV Total, $155,588.16
Prosecutor-Family Law Total, $1,684,505.16
Prosecutor-Unified Drug Total, $86,418.72.
Firstly the “public defender”/prosecutor divide is nothing other than a Constitutionally mandated travesty of justice! Simply scientifically ascertain innocence/guilt and sentence accordingly; tis as easy as that!
Purchasing Total, $462,246.00. What?!?
RSO Total, $106,103.76. What is this?
SCRAPS Total, $553,477.92. What is this?
SCRWRF Total, $246,462.48. What is this?
Sheriff’s Department Total, $20,110,921.44. And people say the cops are not well paid and well funded . . .
STOP Total, $32,953.20. What is this?
Superior Court-Operation Total, $3,622,965.36. 3.6+ million?!?
Therapeutic Court Total, $206,072.88.
Treasurer Total, $1,224,249.48. What?!?
Victim Witness Total, $90,844.70.
Work Crew Total, $524,531.52.
Work Release Total, $226,295.28.
WSPC Total, $44,800.08.
… .
Fuschia on December 06 at 3:00 p.m.
Empyrius.. I was hypnotized by the numbers until I realize that for every $225K you can buy a house and for every $35K you can hire a brand new teacher out of college.
Those numbers are real money. Not just fancy numbers in a spread sheet.
Just how in the heck did all this get so inflated out of perspective and budget?
btw Its none of Gonzaga’s business what your back ground is. Go talk to Raymond Rayes. The only sane person working there.
zelda on December 06 at 5:14 p.m.
What tends to happen is that there is low turnover in govt. jobs and because of scheduled annual raises, salaries eat up more and more of the expenses. Long length of service is a budget killer, not just in government but the non-profit sector as well.
I haven’t analyzed the spreadsheet because, well, it’s Sunday, I’ve got meatballs in the oven and I’m feeling kind of lazy. Have to conserve energy to stay warm.
But I am somewhat sympathetic to officials who have to cut budgets. In the boom times, people complained because there weren’t enough auditors and assessors. Now they complain because the taxes are killing them, but they couldn’t wait to get a higher assessment four years ago to leverage themselves into a second mortgage.
Fuschia on December 06 at 5:36 p.m.
Think about it. Property taxes are taxing something that you dont own (the bank does) and that has no immediate relavent value and is being taxed near what its worth, not what you own on it.
Who came up with that scam years ago?
Hey Zelda left over meatball sandwiches with marinara sauce. Give me a hoot.
zelda on December 06 at 6:23 p.m.
Well, then we have to get into a discussion of intrinsic value and all that esoteric economic stuff, Fuschia.
My outlook is cloudy with a chance of meatballs. Come to think of it, Jim Camden removed the names from the spreadsheet because he didn’t want the meatballs identified by name.
(Yeah, I know…everybody’s gotta be a comedian.)
empyrius on December 06 at 6:46 p.m.
No, straight-up Fuschia, the dreaded “are you a felon” question is on the grad school app; i know, b/c in 2005 I applied, and was denied acceptance; then I made the quite unphilosophical decision of just reverting back to my evil ways b/c my dreams were denied! I remember AA used to say something about “accepting the things one cannot change” . . .
I wasn’t having none of that though.
Trying at this moment to get my school loans out of default so I can once more try to do some good in this life! I have done nothing in these last four years to help my cause though that is for sure . . .
O Lord just give this wretch one more opportunity; I’ll make good on it Lord!!!! Please!!!!!!
If only I would have became a lawyer, then I could have been a criminal and a “model” citizen: har har har har!
Peace
Perspective on December 06 at 7:49 p.m.
Wow… this is easy! Maybe I should be a county commissioner. Here’s a 10-step program:
Step 1: All elected officials salaries are set at $1. Not firing them, just paying them what they’re worth. Nothing like leading from the front! Call it the Steve Jobs approach to management.
Step 2: Community Services budget eliminated. Community service is for charities, not governments. Saved a cool $2.5 million right there.
Step 3: Cut the assessor’s department to around $900,000 by getting rid of all but 4 or 5 property appraisers and techs. Should work, since we’re collecting less in taxes now.
Step 4: Cut the treasurer’s office down to about half a million by getting rid of the tax collectors and assistants. Nobody likes dealing with them anyway.
Step 5: Fire the parking enforcement officer. Nobody likes him either. While messing with the HR department, fire two of the three $66K per year “Human Resource Analysts.”
Step 6: Eliminate the building code enforcement department. These jokers do nothing but hold up job creating development anyway. Also, the fair director just became a volunteer position.
Step 7: Gut the Auditor-Financial services department. Fire all but one or two accounting technicians, a couple of supervisors, and a payroll technician since we’re not going to have as big a payroll anymore.
Step 8: Gut the parks department. Almost a million dollars for parks… really?! Halve it by firing most of the department.
Step 9: Gut the medical examiner’s office (no pun intended).
Step 10: Grab a cold one, because you’re down to just a hair over $82 million in salaries. If you want to keep going, keep cutting administrative assistants and other support positions (elected officials can make their own copies) in other departments. Chances are, you’d find enough to put a few more sheriff’s deputies on the street.
What about those pesky laws I’ve probably ignored that likely require some of these positions? Well, if they’re county laws, change the law to un-require them. If state or federal law mandates the position, that’s not a problem… they can pay for it because we aren’t anymore.
What about all those crucial services I’m doing away with. Funny that, civilization survived without most of these “essential” government services for a very long time, and could easily do so again. Yup, it would be an adjustment, but with lower tax bills we’d get used to it.
zelda on December 06 at 8:56 p.m.
Steps 3-6 are kind of problematic in that the city’s bond rating would fall, nobody would buy the bonds and also insurance companies won’t insure a building without inspections.
As I recall, Bonner or Boundary County, ID, decided a few years ago to rid themselves of building inspectors because they weren’t in the Magna Carta or something and all hell broke loose because business owners couldn’t get insurance.
Lots of moving parts in this engine. Be careful which shear pin or bolt you decide isn’t needed.
Fuschia on December 06 at 9:22 p.m.
I’m not sure he’s going for the shear pin or the bolts.. Its the loose nuts he’s focused on.
Why dont we just give the race track away to the Mobius folks and let them stew in their own toxic waste?
zelda on December 06 at 10:13 p.m.
Oooo, I like that idea. “Here, kids, pick up a soil-test kit, start analyzing the dirt and call me when you’re ready to back-flush the ground water.”
Anywhere else it would be called child labor but here we can make it into a scientific field trip. Changing Spokane, one kid at a time.
Perspective on December 06 at 10:44 p.m.
I’m sure (well, hopeful at least) that you all read the sarcasm in my post—if not, my failing. Zelda’s kind of right about the bond rating and insurance issues. My point is simply that shaving $10 million from a budget won’t be accomplished wielding only a scalpel, and there are probably some luxuries in county government which began as the result of cries for services in the good times (i.e.”Someone should make them [the county] take care of such-and-such”) which were then easy—and politically popular—to accomplish because of ample revenues. Not so much now, so we might need to live without some of these “necessities” for a while. In the process, we may even decide they aren’t really needed at all.
lewis8457 on December 06 at 11:37 p.m.
All good ideas but you all forgot one thing. Unions. They aren’t gong to fire anyone or cut their salaries. While we were off living our lives raising our children our wonderful government has unionized to the point they hold the cards not you or I.
The unions made these salaries. What have we been hearing about lately negations with county and city unions because money isn’t flowing like wine any more? And most if not all their members are guaranteed a cost of living raise every year. We all knew this was happening but we did not do anything. Well now our goose is cooked.
Look at the numbers any good manager could cut the staff by 30% or better and still get the same amount of work done. I used to work down at the courthouse I swear some of those people’s jobs are coffee and cigarette breaks.
They don’t give you the production rates versus hours worked on the chart because they have no idea how to track that.
Want a shocker some day go online and checkout the job line at Spokanecounty.org and look at the starting wages. Meter Reader 42 grand year!
If Obama really cared about the job situation he would open up all government services to private sector contractors so the private sector could get a chance at some of the jobs we are paying far too much money to get done. And in turn taxes would stabilize and America would be stronger with a free enterprise system, but heck what do I know.
garyc on December 07 at 12:40 p.m.
<they aren’t=”” gong=”” to=”” fire=”” anyone=”” or=”” cut=”” their=”“ salaries.=”“>>
There will be layoffs or pay cuts.
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2009/nov/13/county-issues-layoff-notices/?print-friendly
Fuschia on December 07 at 1:04 p.m.
Gary.. my eyes aren’t focusing well this morning with the cold weather.
Did you post “There will be PAY-OFFS and LAY-CUTS?”
The problem is the civil/public servant system. They used to sacrifice comparable wages for job security, benefits and retirement.
Then they pulled the comparability card to the highest paid private sector jobs, so we upped their salarys and put escalator clauses in them.
So now they have way above Spokane salarys/wages and still have the Golden benefits and wages.
The top third highest paid should get their pay reduced 1/3. All pay capped at $65K
The middle third should get their pay reduced 1/4.
and the bottom third left alone.
Run those numbers and see how it shakes out.
We need to quit taxing the citizens to death to keep the golden gooses happy.
westside on December 07 at 4:18 p.m.
Thats correct, city wages and perks are way above the spokane private sector!! The city is run by the unions and the city management is powerless….. go figure.. the top managers in the fire dept belong to unions!!! In the private sector you think Avista execs belong to a union?? Fire at will in the private sector..I really think this recession is a great blessing to city government..do with less.! City morons always say, “we have to pay them top dollar or we won’t get qualified people”!! ya right..they will go back to Spokane’s dead private sector and make 10 bucks an hour? Their would be thousands waiting in line for city jobs.. Verner does not have the guts or courage to implement huge pay cuts…good, they can cry and weep..boo hoo. to the unemployment line.
Truthbtold on December 08 at 5:50 a.m.
WOW, there are some great ideas here. Let’s chew on this one,
Mayor Verner gave up almost 60,000 dollars of her salary. Let’s try asking some of the elected officials if they are also willing to give up some of the salary to help protect and serve the community.
After all they took an oath to do so. If they “love” Spokane as much as they say they do, especially when it is an election year, prove it!
During these tough times, we cannot afford to lose anymore sheriff/police officers/drug units. Statics show that that when the economy is down, crime us up.
Fuschia on December 08 at 11:04 a.m.
Ms. Sullivan,
1) With the budget cuts we have less taxes.
2) With less taxes we have fewer deputies arresting people and
3 )fewer prosecutors sending them to court and
4) fewer courts and judges finding them guilty,
5) we have just reduced the number of people we have in the jail, so we can reduce the number of jailers.
6) With less taxes we will have fewer people needing to commit crimes to make a living.
7) See #1.
TomGRichardson on December 09 at 8:06 a.m.
One of the surprising things found in this year’s financial study of County finances was differentiating the County’s regional and local revenues and expenses. The study showed that regional revenues for services such as auditor, assessor, district courts, etc were just about balanced, but the county’s real problem was with revenues for local operations such as the sheriff’s department. The county does not have the right kind of revenue sources to provide local services to large urban residential areas. It would be good if your spreadsheet could add this factor so that people could comment on that portion of the county budget where the real problems lies, i.e. in providing urban local services.
cynthia01 on December 17 at 2:37 a.m.
‘m reliable (fine, anticipative at smallest) that you all have the witticism in my post-if not, my failing. Zelda’s humane of conservative virtually the enthralled rating and insurance issues. My taper is simply that depilation $10 million from a budget won’t be accomplished wielding only a scalpel, and there are probably many luxuries in county governance which began as the prove of cries for services in the serious present (i.e.”Someone should alter them [the county] determine tutelage of such-and-such”) which were then ea
many of these “necessities” for a while. In the walk, we may regularise adjudicate they aren’t really requisite at all.
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cynthia
[url=”http://www.legalx.net“]attorney[/url]