Crime Pushing Up Budget Requests

Kootenai County government departments want $1.1 million more in property tax dollars next year than this year, according to a preliminary county budget.

Departments seeking the greatest increases: Those that deal directly with crime.

Six of the top eight budget requests come from the jail, public defender’s office, 911 center, juvenile probation, the prosecutor and the sheriff’s office.

“With population increases come increases in crime,” said sheriff’s Capt. Ben Wolfinger. “More people head to court and more people go to jail. And we all want to put the bad guys away.”

The county formally kicked off budget season Monday with commissioners reviewing financing requests from about four dozen departments.

Over the next month, the county clerk will propose a spending plan, which will be hashed out until September, when commissioners hold a public hearing.

But growth in spending on crime and punishment will make it nearly impossible for officials to match last year’s budgetary feat - an overall spending cut, said county Administrator Tom Taggart.

“With all the pressure from law enforcement, I don’t know if that’s possible,” Taggart said.

The jail and public defender’s office alone asked for an additional $825,000.

The county jail, which repeatedly held more prisoners than its legal capacity, hired seven new jailers and has asked for another nurse and a guard.

The public defender’s office already is so overworked and understaffed that several people have quit during the past year.

A new chief defender, Ron Coulter, spent less than a year there before moving on to the attorney general’s office in Boise.

The office is seeking four more employees.

State law allows the county’s $33 million budget to increase by up to 6 percent this year.

Even so, commissioners plan to uphold earlier pledges to increase spending only in line with taxes picked up from new growth - a move that, theoretically, would keep a typical tax bill the same from year to year, said County Clerk Dan English.

But it won’t be easy.

To do so, commissioners will have to pare requests by at least $590,524 and probably more because the preliminary budget does not include money for employee raises. Commissioners have not yet determined how much will be spent on raises next year, Taggart said.

Other department requests include:

The sheriff’s office wants an additional $166,491, primarily for deputies, cars and computers.

The building department wants another $58,375, about half of which would be for cars.

The planning department wants $9,082 for computers and copy machines.

, DataTimes