Commissioners Approve Lean 1998 Budget $2.4 Million In Unexpected Money Sends Reserve Account To $4.4 Million

Spokane County is ending the year with $2.4 million more in the bank than accountants predicted 12 months ago.

County commissioners approved a lean 1998 budget Monday that preserves a $4.4 million reserve account, even though voters decided in November to limit the growth in county tax revenue next year.

Budget writers predicted late last year that the county would have about $2 million in the bank when 1997 ended. But the county collected more in taxes and earned about $1 million more from its investments than anyone expected.

County Treasurer Linda Wolverton, a Democrat, “has done an excellent job of investing our money,” said Commissioner Kate McCaslin, a Republican.

Wolverton couldn’t be reached for comment late Monday.

Between 1990 and 1995, the reserve account dropped from $5 million to a dangerously low $517,000. Financial analysts threatened to downgrade the county’s bond rating in 1995, saying there wouldn’t be enough money in the bank to cover an emergency.

In the past two years, commissioners have scrutinized every request for money from the account, to the point where they sometimes are accused of micro-managing.

During the past four months of budget talks, for instance, commissioners slashed travel and education accounts for most departments by a third from what was requested. Other departments got half the money they expected to pay dues for professional organizations.

Commissioners gave the nonprofit Spokane Economic Development Council $40,000 this year, compared to $80,000 last year. Still, county spending to promote Spokane is unchanged, because Focus 21, another economic development group, got half its $80,000 request.

Commissioners decided to spend $850,000 instead of $1.7 million shifting around courthouse offices to make room for an 11th Superior Court judge.

And they refused to cut gambling taxes by about $200,000, as tavern owners had requested.

Those steps and others should help preserve the reserve account, which is part of the $91.5 million general fund.

In all, the county will spend about $274 million next year from all sources, including state and federal grants. But there is little wiggle-room for most spending outside the general fund.

State money earmarked for sewer construction must go toward that work, for instance, and federal money to build roads can go toward nothing else. Greens fees collected from golfers can only go toward the golf courses.

The budget includes nearly $1 million for pay increases. That’s enough to give 2 percent raises to nearly all employees, although raises haven’t yet been negotiated with unions or promised to non-union workers.

Voters in November approved Referendum 47, which limits the growth in property-tax collections to the rate of inflation. That doesn’t include increases caused by new development.

In the past, the county typically took a 6 percent increase every year. The inflation-based increase this year was about 2 percent, meaning the county can collect about $1.4 million less in 1998 than would have been possible if the referendum hadn’t passed.

Still, that’s about $1 million more than last year.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: PAY RAISES The 1998 budget includes nearly $1 million for pay increases - enough to give 2 percent raises to nearly all employees, although raises haven’t yet been negotiated with unions or promised to non-union workers.