County commissioners begin budget review
By WILLIAM L. SPENCE
The Daily Inter Lake
The Flathead County commissioners began their review of the 2006-'07 fiscal budget Monday, meeting with various department heads to discuss their individual requests.
The review will continue into next week. A preliminary budget is tentatively scheduled to be approved Aug. 14, after which a formal public hearing will be held.
The final budget, together with the new property tax mill levy, will be adopted after the public hearing.
The budget covers the 12-month period that began July 1.
Like other local governments in Montana, Flathead County approves its annual budget after the fiscal year begins, because it's waiting for taxable value information from the state Department of Revenue.
Flathead County Administrator Mike Pence said fine-tuning will occur before the preliminary budget is approved.
The initial expenditure proposals submitted by the department heads exceed last year's budget by almost 10 percent, Pence said. Consequently, they'll have to be cut back to match revenues.
The commissioners also need to address several requests for additional personnel, as well as some requests for significant wage or salary increases.
For example, County Attorney Ed Corrigan went to bat Monday for the deputy attorneys in his office, asking for more money to keep their salaries competitive.
"As far as I can determine, they're the lowest paid public-sector attorneys in the valley," Corrigan said.
About half of his prosecuting attorneys earn less than what the state pays for entry level public defenders, he said. Kalispell also pays more than the county.
To maintain the level of service in his office and keep experienced attorneys from leaving, Corrigan wants to bump his personnel budget up by $31,000 a year.
(Corrigan would not see any of this extra money, if it's approved. Salaries for most elected officials are set by the commissioners, based on the recommendation of the county compensation board.)
Other department heads have asked for similar increases for some of their employees.
Moreover, Human Resources Director Raeann Campbell recommended earlier this year that pay grades for 22 job categories be adjusted upward to reflect market conditions - a proposal that would affect about a quarter of all county employees and cost between $100,000 and $200,000.
The county is facing significant cost increases in other areas as well, including a 10 percent jump in health-insurance premiums, higher workers' compensation rates in some job categories, and higher prices for fuel and other oil-based products.
However, the revenue side of the budget isn't likely to change much, unless the commissioners decide to raise the mill levy.
Pence said the preliminary estimate is that a mill will only be worth about 3.4 percent more this year. That figure reflects any increase in assessed values, as well as the new properties added to the tax rolls.
Based on last year's approved levy, this 3.4 percent increase in mill values would raise about $715,000 in additional tax revenue - roughly two-thirds of which would be needed just to cover the cost-of-living increase and longevity pay for county employees.
The commissioners approved a $58.3 million budget last year. The property tax levy of 132.57 mills raised about $21 million, or 36 percent of the overall budget; the remainder of the budget was covered by fees, grants, state payments and other non-tax revenue sources.
Reporter Bill Spence may be reached at 758-4459 or by e-mail at bspence@dailyinterlake.com.