Commissioners grilled on budget proposal

SANDPOINT — Bonner County commissioners are scheduled to adopt the county’s $58.6 million budget today.

The adoption follows two rounds of public hearings on Monday which included some barbed questions about the use of surplus reserve funds and alleged biases toward employees who work in law enforcement.

There was also an appeal from a taxpayer to reduce the budget and ease the burden on landowners.

The amount of money levied from property taxes is increasing 2.66 percent over last year’s rate, which will generate approximately $592,000 in additional revenue.

“Overall in America right now, real wages for people are going down and real inflation is going up a little bit. I never hear anybody say, ‘Well, let’s have no budget increase this year,’ ” said Stephan Virnig.

Commission Chairman Cary Kelly said an increase of even 3 percent would barely cover the rising fuel and other consumer goods the county has to purchase in order to function.

“The county is a large consumer of goods and services,” Kelly said. “We can’t control those prices.”

Commissioner Mike Nielsen said the county also has to grapple with unfunded mandates, such as a new state law which requires children over the age of 12 be appointed legal counsel in child-protection cases.

Virnig asked if the board if it had considered cutting services.

Kelly said he was not willing to jeopardize public safety and expressed reluctance at scaling back other services the public expects.

“There is just not a lot of fat,” Kelly said of the spending plan and staffing levels.

Some of the hearings’ most pointed questions came from former Commissioner Lewie Rich, who chided the board for “raiding” reserve funds and  appearing to favor law enforcement.

The commission said the $6.1 million taken from reserves was surplus, meaning it was over and above reserve funding the county keeps on hand to fund operations prior to the receipt of tax revenue.

“We’re keeping a good safety margin,” Commissioner Glen Bailey said.

The use of surplus reserves is funding cost-intensive capital improvements that have been neglected by prior boards, Nielsen added. Those initiatives include shoring up the county’s faltering information technology infrastructure  and installing new nearly 30 heating-and-cooling units at the jail and courthouse.

Rich said he’s still in contact with county employees who feel they are being given short shrift in pay raises. County employees are receiving a $0.50 raise, while deputies are getting $1 raises, and in a few cases, $2 raises.

“Rich said it appears “that there’s a bias favoring law enforcement by this board because of your affiliation. All three of you were in law enforcement.”

Nielsen said claims of bias were “mistaken.” Nielsen said he personally pored over a comprehensive salary, wages and benefits for law enforcement agencies throughout the Panhandle, which showed wages for sworn officers in the county languished behind their counterparts and still do despite the boost.

“We stopped the bleeding, but we still have an injury,” he said.

Sheriff Daryl Wheeler agreed.

“We have put another Band-Aid on this, but we have not solved the problem,” he said.