By NATHAN WHALEN

Staff reporter

It looks like Island County has to tighten its belt yet another notch as officials work to balance next year’s budget.

Early figures show that county leaders have to shave more than $400,000 to come up with a balanced 2004 budget to its general fund.

Budget Director Elaine Marlow presented a look at next year’s budget during a workshop with the Board of Island County Commissioners Monday morning.

“It’s a bare-boned budget,” Marlow said, adding that the current budget is based on the assumption that every job position the commissioners approved this year will continue next year.

Marlow attributed the shortfall to skyrocketing health insurance costs and recent union negotiations that provided a 2 percent cost of living adjustment for represented staff.

The county paid $1.5 million in health insurance this year and Marlow said the county is bracing for a 23 percent increase next year.

The county took a 26 percent increase this year in insurance rates.

The county negotiated the cost of living adjustment with one of the five unions and the other organizations will see similar increases, Marlow said.

Commissioner Mac McDowell said the adjustment keeps pace with increases in the consumer price index.

“The idea is that they didn’t lose any buying power,” McDowell said.

“We’ve got to ask ourselves what are we going to bite off,” said Commissioner Bill Byrd.

McDowell added cutting $400,000 from a $19 million budget should be accomplished without having to resort to layoffs.

Other options resolve the money issue would be to go to the voters to increase property taxes or to increase county fees.

McDowell said neither option is currently viable because he believes voters wouldn’t support such an initiative and that there would be a backlash associated with fee increases.

This is the second consecutive year the county has dealt with budget problems. Last year, the county dealt with a $770,000 shortfall in its budget.

That shortfall caused the county to lay off 13 employees, make a 4 percent reduction the maintenance and operation budget and cut 40 percent from its capital purchase budget.

Last year, the county informed employees of pending layoffs in August. McDowell said the employees knew of the county’s budget situation the prior spring.

While the budget presented is a bare-boned one, it doesn’t take into account the supplemental requests the department made this year.

These requests are, in part, an attempt to restore previous cutbacks and to keep up with various projects.

The Prosecutor’s Office wants to restore a deputy prosecutor position that was eliminated.

The Public Works Department wants to hire four seasonal employees next year to mow shoulders on county roads as part of the county’s no-spray policy. This policy was enacted in April 2002 in response to community pressure to eliminate the use of herbicides by the county.

Public Works Director Bill Oakes said the county would hire these employees for nine months to provide enough manpower to keep up with the shoulder mowing and fill in on other projects.

Oakes said he has used an incremental approach to stretch out the financial burden of mowing.

The county spent $180,000 for the new mowers in 2002 and needs $105,000 for the additional staff next year, Oakes said.

Other additions various departments want range from reinstating a probation secretary to hiring an associate planner for Planning and Community Development.

Because most of the additional budget items relate to staffing, McDowell said it would be unlikely that many of them are approved.

“It’s not really time to take on new repetitive costs,” McDowell said.

The commissioners are spending this week looking through the preliminary budget and will meet in a budget workshop on Monday.

The county wants to have a preliminary budget ready by the Nov. 10 commissioners’ meeting. That is when a public hearing on the county budget is scheduled.

The public hearing for the budget normally takes place the first Monday in December.

You can reach News-Times reporter Nathan Whalen at nwhalen@whidbeynewstimes.com or 675-6611.