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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Sheriff urges tax hike for deputy pay

For the price of a latte, Kootenai County Sheriff Rocky Watson thinks he has a solution to stop the exodus of deputies leaving for higher-paying jobs.

Watson said the county has the ability to collect an additional $870,000 in property taxes each year but for many years has opted not to take it, leaving more cash in county property owners’ pockets.

The sheriff proposes that the Kootenai County Commission collect $500,000 of that property tax to pay for salary increases for sheriff’s deputies and 911 workers. Watson said he figures that would increase property owners’ 2005 taxes by about $1.19 per household.

“The impact is fractional; less than a latte a year,” Watson said.

Yet the commission isn’t sure if that’s a viable solution.

Commissioners are hashing out the fiscal year 2005 budget and should have a final draft done by next week. Nobody is sure if Watson’s proposal to increase property taxes will be included. Once the proposed budget is printed, the county will hold a public hearing Sept. 7.

If the commission rejects Watson’s proposal, Kootenai County Finance Director David McDowell said he doubts property taxes will go up in 2005. And that’s a relief for many property owners who saw a $60 jump in their tax bills this year. Property taxes increased because the county had to replace money lost when the Idaho Supreme Court threw out the county’s half-cent local sales tax.

The half-cent sales tax has been reinstated and once again county property owners will get about $3.4 million in property tax relief. That’s why county property taxes aren’t expected to increase in 2005.

Watson said if the county doesn’t agree to take the additional taxes, the Sheriff’s Department will continue to lose deputies to Spokane law enforcement agencies that pay about $1,000 more a month. The turnover has cost the county about $3.3 million a year in lost productivity, training and corporate knowledge.

Kootenai County deputies start at $14 an hour and top out at $20.59 per hour. This makes them among the lowest-paid law enforcement officers in the region, Watson said. Starting pay for deputies at the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office is $18.58 and tops out at $25.65 an hour.

Currently, the proposed budget includes $700,000 to give employees 3 percent, merit-based raises. Watson said that’s not nearly enough cash to stop the exodus.

County employees didn’t get any raises in 2004 and every department had to cut 5 percent from its budget proposals.

McDowell said it’s too early to put a total amount on the fiscal year 2005 budget. This year’s budget totaled $54 million.

McDowell said property taxes aren’t expected to increase in 2005 because the county is expecting up to $1 million in new revenue to put toward tax relief. The county has been collecting that money since April 1 from the half-cent local option sales tax that county voters agreed to reinstate in November 2003. The local-option tax is paying off bonds on the $12 million jail expansion and half of the money collected goes toward property tax relief.

McDowell said the commissioners are looking at ways to use the $870,000 the county doesn’t currently collect from property owners. Indigent care costs and employee health insurance are both areas that need extra money. And employees outside the Sheriff’s Department and 911 center need wage increases, too.

Commission Chairman Dick Panabaker said he would have no problem collecting the additional taxes if the county knew exactly what positions needed pay increases.

That’s why Panabaker is advocating hiring an independent consultant to compare the salary and benefits of county employees to wages for similar jobs in the Northwest. The study would pinpoint which positions are underpaid, overpaid or just about right. The $60,000 study hasn’t yet been included in the budget proposal.

Panabaker and Watson have sparred over the wage study proposal, which was finally postponed because it was becoming too political in the heated election year.

“If we had done the compensation review we should have evidence to back up the spending of the foregone taxes,” Panabaker said. “I don’t want to get into a war with (the Sheriff’s Department). All I want is to know where the most important places are for the money to go.”

Commissioner Rick Currie said he’s coming up with his own plan to help solve the deputy wage crisis and other county needs such as indigent care costs. But he was unwilling Wednesday to provide specific details.

Commissioner Gus Johnson wasn’t available for comment.

Panabaker said when he was elected 10 years ago the commission decided not to collect the maximum amount of property taxes because he didn’t think the county should take more than it needed.

Now he thinks that might have been a mistake.

“Perhaps in retrospect we should have taken it and taken care of this stuff a little better,” he said.