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After trimming about $2 million from departmental budgets and raising property
taxes by 8 percent, Spokane County commissioners approved the 2007 budget Tuesday.
The
general fund budget, which includes law and justice and other county operations,
was approved at $155,064,365, which includes a $13.9 million reserve fund. That
is a 2.5-percent increase over the 2006 budget of $151,666,752, which also had
near $14 million in reserves.
Law and justice, as usual, demands the
largest share of the general fund budget at $98,647,340 an increase of about 2.6
percent over 2006. The second part of the general fund budget support services
was approved at $42,562,913 up 2.3 percent over 2006.
The total county
budget, which includes both the general fund budget and the special revenue funds,
debt service, enterprise funds, internal service funds and fiduciary funds, stands
at $402,233,116 about a 2-percent increase over 2006.
To pay for all
of this, commissioners found themselves facing revenue shortfalls for 2007, forcing
them to ask department heads to trim their individual budgets by about $2 million.
Then, in order to maintain the county's reserve fund needed to meet unexpected
expenses throughout the coming year and to influence the county's bonding capacity
the commissioners decided to call in its markers to raise property tax revenues
by almost 8 percent.
Under the law, local governments have the authority
to only raise property taxes annually by 1 percent. However, if officials decide
to forego the increase, the 1-percent per year can be "banked" for use
at a later date.
"For the past several years, costs have been steadily
increasing and we absorbed those expenses internally by drawing down reserves
to balance the budget and did not pass it along to the taxpayers," Marshall
Farnell, county chief executive officer, said. "However, that simply was
not enough for 2007."
For the past eight years, the county did
not increase property tax revenue by the full amount allowed by state law. However,
Farnell added, dramatic increases in costs associated with unfounded state and
federal mandates, law enforcement and incarceration, energy and community services
led the county commissioners to make the difficult decision of increasing property
tax revenue by the full banked capacity of almost 8 percent. Click
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By
CHARLIE PLUMB
