During a Clark County council hearing Monday, Treasurer Doug Lasher and Auditor Greg Kimsey expressed overall support for the proposed 2017-2018 county budget, praising it for maintaining services. But Clark County Sheriff Chuck Atkins used the hearing to reiterate his concern that the proposed budget continues what he characterized as the “chronic underfunding” of law enforcement in Clark County.
Over the last two days, Clark County council has received input from elected officials and the public as well as new figures from staff on the nearly finalized budget, a sprawling document proposed by the county manager that will determine how $321 million is spent over the two-year period.
The public also had the opportunity to weigh in Tuesday night, which revealed concerns over funding to public health as well as services for veterans and disabled individuals.
The council is expected to vote on whether to approve the budget today.
Managing growth
Deputy County Manager Bob Stevens told The Columbian that unlike the 2009-2010 budget, which contained many cuts as a result of the recession, the proposed budget contains no “cuts” to any county services.
“What we’re really having is an argument about growth,” he said.
The most recent figures from the county auditor’s office show almost every function of Clark County receiving an increase from the $295 million adopted budget for 2015-2016. The largest increase would go to law and justice functions provided by the sheriff and prosecuting attorney. The budget would increase funding for law and justice to $204 million from the $191 million budgeted to it in 2015-2016.
The proposed budget contains a $22.6 million gap between revenues and expenses. Earlier numbers put the shortfall at $20 million, but adjusted figures that account for spending on county infrastructure projects such as new software, phone systems and other projects widened the gap. The proposed budget closes the gap with a mix of debt financing, a 1 percent increase in the property tax levy, using other sources of funding and finding efficiencies.
“You find better ways to do business,” Adriana Prata, Clark County budget director, told The Columbian.
For instance, Stevens said that under the new budget his office will give up two positions. He also said that the vacant director position for Clark County Public Information and Outreach will be eliminated and the department will be folded into the county council, saving $1.3 million.
Prata said that county revenues are increasing modestly from property and sales taxes. Property taxes have grown slowly but steadily by about $1 million per year and are forecast to rise from the $58 million taken in 2016 to $61 million by 2018. The county has seen sales tax rise more dramatically since the recession from $22 million in 2009 to $36 million in 2016.
Prata said that while sales taxes are anticipated to rise by 4 percent annually, property annexations by the city of Vancouver will cause the county to lose out on $1.2 million each year in revenue beginning in 2018. She also said that Clark County loses out on $25 million per year in consumers traveling to Oregon to avoid sales taxes.
During a Monday presentation of the budget to the council, Prata said that two-thirds of the county’s General Fund expenses are related to personnel costs, such as wage increases, medical costs and state-mandated retirement rate increases. County figures show that while the number of full-time employees dropped from 1,125 in the 2009-2010 budget cycle to 1,081 in the current, payroll costs have risen from $182 million to $204 million in that period.
Sheriff’s office
During Monday’s hearing, Atkins and Darin Rouhier, the finance manager for the sheriff’s office, appeared before the council to present numbers concluding that Clark County was funding law enforcement at a significantly lower level compared to similar counties in Washington.
“At the end of the day, I think the real question is, how is Clark County government prioritizing the sheriff’s office budget compared to other county governments?” Atkins told the council. “Our citizens deserve at least the same level of public safety support as their fellow citizens in other counties.”
The proposed budget calls for an 8 percent increase from the 2015-2016 adopted budget for the sheriff’s office. In addition to its overall increase for ongoing expenses, the budget also includes one-time funding for projects including a new boat house, jail-suicide prevention and security enhancements in its reception area.
But Atkins said the proposed budget cut his fleet and required him to find $562,580 in spending reductions elsewhere in his office, and it didn’t include money to help find a replacement for the badly dilapidated central precinct. He also said that under the proposed budget, the sheriff’s office will be unable to expand an inmate re-entry program.
Rouhier gave a presentation to the council concluding that Clark County only spends $122 per capita on sheriff and jail services. The presentation showed peer counties spending more. For instance, Pierce County spends $146 per capita.
“We’re really talking apples-to-apples here,” Rouhier said.
“There’s no way of knowing it’s an apples-to-apples comparison,” Stevens told The Columbian. He said that the sheriff’s numbers leave out money spent on facilities and liabilities. He also said the comparison leaves out factors such as crime rates.
“There couldn’t be a more meaningless number,” he said.
Public weighs in
On Tuesday evening, the council heard the public’s concerns about the budget. Judy Russel, administrator of the Clark County Veterans Assistance Center, told the council that a special tax that provides money for veterans services wasn’t at a level adequate under state law. She said that the fund provides services for veterans facing homelessness or health issues and asked for an increase in funding.
“Please find this money for our veterans,” she said. “They are people who have given us everything.”
Darla Helt, executive director of Parents Empowered and Communities Enhanced, told the council that there was a similar problem with a county tax that funded services for disabled individuals. She asked the council to not balance the budget on the “backs of the most vulnerable in our community.”
Prata later told The Columbian that the budget would make adjustment to the taxes to bring them in line with state law.
