Editorial: County should fund most urgent needs first

Ozzie Knezovich has been a dependable steward of taxpayers’ funds, and the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office has more than $300,000 in savings to show for it.

For that, the public owes him its thanks, as do the county commissioners, who bear primary responsibility for getting the most from a limited reservoir of revenue. But do they owe him what he is asking, namely that the commissioners give the savings back to him to be spent on a list of pressing equipment needs that they didn’t fund before?

Knezovich’s request contains a plausible, common-sense rationale. He was frugal with the funds allocated to him. If he could make them stretch, why not let him enjoy that much more bang for the bucks he saved?

The sheriff has faced this issue before, buttressing past claims with an assertion that the county needs a long-range master plan for replacing capital equipment — bullet-proof vests, bullets, cars, on-board computers and the like — that has a predictable useful life. Basically, the kinds of items on his current list of wants.

But the commissioners are charged with adopting a budget that addresses all functions of county government, not just the Sheriff’s Office. Many county departments are under the direction of separately elected officials who, like Knezovich, are independently accountable to the voters, but they all have to do their jobs within the means apportioned to them by the commissioners. And they all compete, on behalf of the same constituents, for scarce county resources.

Ideally, the budgeting process begins with a ranking of county government’s responsibilities, from the essential down to the expendable. Top priorities get first claim, lower ones are out of luck. In between, programs and acquisitions survive or die depending on how far down the list the money lasts.

The final budget ought to reflect a keen assessment of the county’s needs, and the appropriations should be calculated as accurately as possible while leaving a reasonable margin for error.

If all that happened, and the Sheriff’s Office had $337,000 left over, maybe he got too much in the first place and the surplus should go to countywide proposals that just missed out last time. Or maybe Knezovich should be rewarded now for not squandering excess funds when he had the chance.

There’s merit in both questions, but it’s a decision for the commissioners. In making it, they should rely on the prioritization principles that belong in an initial budget-writing effort. From the look of Knezovich’s list, he should fare pretty well, but he shouldn’t automatically retain the savings. Commissioners owe it to the public to weigh all the competing requests and support the most compelling.