County budget gets approved

THOMPSON FALLS – After meeting with many representatives from the different groups, the Sanders County Commissioners completed the arduous task of drafting the county’s budget for the next fiscal year.

The three commissioners for Sanders County had a busy week as the budget was finalized and eventually unanimously passed.

Commissioner Tony Cox noted it is never easy to pass a budget for the next fiscal year but he believes the tough task of setting forth next year’s budget went successfully.

“It is always tight. But we funded what we needed to fund and we still have some money leftover,” Cox said.

In the morning on Tuesday, Sept. 2, the commissioners met with Sanders County Clerk and Recorder Nichol Scribner to finalize the budget for the next fiscal year and prepare for the public comment period, which was held later in the week.  

Part of the proceedings on Tuesday involved the discussion of the mill levy.

“The value of our mills dropped by $1,000,” Scribner said.

Scribner added the county would still be able to provide current services.

The drop in the value of mills means money from the budget will be allocated in a way that ensures the county continues to cover its costs.

“Basically we just redistribute the funds. We still provide the same services,” Scribner said.

According to Scribner, a main goal of the county when it drafts its budget is to ensure there is a substantial amount of reserve available after the final budget is drafted.

“One of the things we really work hard to do is we look at percent of reserve,” Scribner said.

Scribner said this year’s budget incorporates an eight to ten percent reserve.

Despite the focus on creating a reserve Scribner said the emphasis is always placed on creating a budget from which the county can successfully operate off of.

“We try to budget as high a reserve as we can and still function as a county,” Scribner said.

One of the challenges in addressing this year’s budget regarded the sizeable increase in insurance costs for county employees.

“There was an 11 percent increase in employee insurance costs,” Scribner said.

She added four percent of this increase was due to costs regarding the Affordable Care Act.  

The county is anticipating a fall in property values when they are reevaluated this year, a forecast, which affects many areas of western Montana.

The fall in property values will also impact forthcoming county budgets.

“The entire western region of Montana is expecting a 10 to 15 percent reduction in property values,” Scribner said.

Cox said one of the changes for this year’s budget has to do with the Sanders County Sheriff’s Office.

According to Cox, the sheriff’s office went up from 35 mills to a total of 38 mills.

Though the sheriff’s budget did see an increase in mills Scribner said the increase is due in large part to the decrease in value of the county’s mills.

In order to ensure the law enforcement deputies of the sheriff’s department are able to provide their services to the county, their mills had to be increased due to the drop in total mill values.     

The sheriff’s office was interested in leasing three new patrol vehicles to combat the high mileage totals of their current fleet.

In the budget for the next fiscal year the sheriff’s office will be provided with funds to lease two new vehicles as opposed to the three that were requested.

Cox said the county would reconsider leasing an additional vehicle during next year’s budgetary process.

A couple of days after the early week deliberations, on Thursday, Sept. 4, Scribner and the commissioners once again came together in Thompson Falls to hold a public comment period for next year’s budget.

Cox said a few members of the public were on hand for the budget’s public comment period on Thursday and their questions mainly focused on particulars of the budget regarding the mills and tax funding.

Following the public comments, the budget for the next fiscal year was officially passed on the afternoon of Friday, Sept. 5, completing the commissioner’s budgetary tasks for this year.

The county commissioners will once again come together in Thompson Falls to sign the budget on Tuesday, Sept. 9.

Though Scribner acknowledged the budgetary process was not easy, she believes everything was handled effectively.

“All in all it was a pretty smooth process,” Scribner said.