Grays Harbor County is deep into the budgeting process for 2018, with two of the three commissioners presenting potential budgets during a special meeting on Oct. 27.
Commissioner Wes Cormier noted his budget likely would require the elimination of positions, potentially even layoffs. Commissioner Randy Ross also warned of a similar scenario.
As they have for the past several years, each commissioner will submit their own suggested budget for 2018. After each budget is submitted, the commissioners will work with staff to either adopt a suggested budget or create a fourth option that combines the best of all three budget suggestions.
During the Oct. 27 meeting, commissioners Ross and Cormier submitted their suggested budgets. Commissioner Vickie Raines said she hadn’t submitted a budget due to both scheduling confusion and the lack of revenue projections.
“I can’t make reductions until I know exactly what the revenues are going to be,” Raines explained. “I do have some that I’ve looked at…”
Raines noted that she’s currently having discussions with other county officials and other agencies to guide her budget decisions moving forward.
Ross submitted a budget that had aimed to make a 5 percent cut to county spending.
According to the numbers he had submitted, Ross’s cuts amounted to more than $1.7 million of baseline, but county staff and Commissioner Raines noted that Ross had used the wrong numbers for baseline (the requested expenditure amount submitted by each department).
Despite the accidental baseline issues, a notable piece of Ross’s budget was no cuts to the Assessor’s Office, with Ross saying that the department currently is behind in assessments.
“We’re behind the eight ball in getting caught up (for assessments),” Ross said.
Cormier shaved more than $1.3 million from baseline.
The biggest hits came to facility services, with a 15 percent cut, the Treasurer’s Office, with a 9 percent cut, and the Assessor’s Office, with an 8 percent cut.
Mark Cox, the director of facilities and utilities at Grays Harbor County, was concerned about the potential cut to facility services. At 15 percent, that cut amounts to a decrease of $168,000.
“The majority of that budget is utilities — those are fixed cost,” Cox said. “I don’t know exactly where we would cut that. I mean I could cut down to zero staff, but I don’t see how we could operate with a $168,000-cut from $1.1 million.”
Cormier also noted in his budget that he would not have the county reimburse for his travel expenses — that would amount to a savings of $5,400 in 2018. Cormier’s budget did not include public safety sales tax money, he said, because he’s waiting for the public safety sales tax committee to make recommendations before including the revenue.
Both Cormier and Ross noted that while they anticipate their suggested budgets would lead to personnel cuts, other elected officials (the Assessor, the Treasurer, the Sheriff and the Prosecutor) could opt to make cuts in other places within their budgets to maintain staffing.
“I don’t want to impose a position on an elected official,” Cormier said. “They might find a way to not cut a position by doing furloughs or some other means to fulfill that.”
“I don’t think it’s my position to tell another elected how they should cut back on their budget — that’s going to be on (their) department to figure out how that happens,” Ross said. “I would assume most of those would be furloughs, layoffs.”
