A proposed 2011-12 county budget was written on the assumption Clark County commissioners won’t boost property taxes by the allowed 1 percent for 2011.
The $890 million draft budget was submitted last week by county Administrator Bill Barron.
A public hearing on the budget will start at 2 p.m. Dec. 6 at the Public Service Center, 1300 Franklin St.
Commissioners must adopt a balanced budget by the end of the first full week of December.
While the board could raise the county’s general and road fund levies by 1 percent, commissioners have indicated they don’t plan on boosting rates.
Budget Director Jim Dickman said Monday that a 1 percent increase would bring in an additional $600,000 for the general fund and $350,000 for the road fund next year.
Elected county officials who asked for more money but didn’t get it will have one more opportunity to plead their case. Commissioners have back-to-back work sessions with elected officials Nov. 17.
In Barron’s memorandum to the commissioners, he wrote that the 2009-10 budget “was adopted and repeatedly revised downward during a period of economic upheaval and uncertainty unlike any other since the 1930s.”
The general fund budget, projected at $280 million for the next two years, has been cut by $62 million since the 2007-08 budget.
Expenses were further decreased by reducing hours and pay for about 200 employees after 270 positions were cut.
Barron said the budget assumes a flat revenue forecast for 2011-12.
“Our forecast calls for a further decline in new construction in 2011, followed by a modest improvement in 2012,” he wrote. “Ten years ago, new construction was valued at $1 billion annually. It peaked at $1.5 billion in 2007. The latest forecast projects $265 million in 2011 and $345 million in 2012.”
One area where commissioners have agreed to increase spending?
Indigent defense, which the county has to provide.
The proposed budget includes adding $582,654 to indigent defense’s two-year budget, boosting it to $9.5 million.
That reflects an increase in costs for homicide and “three strikes” cases, according to the budget request.
In August, Prosecutor Art Curtis complained to commissioners about indigent defense costs, saying “maybe the county is being taken advantage of” by defense attorneys.
Defense attorneys say they only follow the standards set out in Strickland v. Washington, a 1984 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that addresses a defendant’s right to effective counsel.
Curtis asked for an additional $42,000 for trial costs, which did not get into Barron’s proposed budget.
Barron did include an additional $73,000 in the Superior Court’s budget for paying mileage to people who serve on jury duty.
Superior Court pays expenses for all juries, and the request was based on an increase in District Court trials.
In the memorandum to commissioners, Barron wrote that increasing county employees’ share of health care costs will be a “key feature” of balancing expenditures with a flat revenue forecast.
“As drafted, the budget calls for employees to pay an additional $5.8 million for health care in the next biennium,” Barron wrote. “How this is accomplished will depend on the outcome of ongoing contract negotiations.”
To read the recommended budget, go online at http://www.clark.wa.gov/budget/documents.html.
