Facing the prospect of significant revenue shortfalls, the Blaine County Commission was forced to make hard choices Tuesday in arriving at the county's tentative 2009 fiscal year budget.
As of press time Tuesday, commissioners hadn't voted on the exact details of the tentative budget—they were scheduled to do so by 4 p.m.—but they had arrived at a preliminary budget number of $22.2 million.
This is significantly less than the county's $29 million budget for the 2008 fiscal year. However, the 2008 increase was largely due to a $7.5 million payment to help fund the construction of the new Blaine County public safety facility, which has its official grand opening last week.
Under Idaho law, the county's tentative "not-to-exceed" budget must be finalized by early September. This means that while the commissioners cannot increase the tentative budget figures they've agreed to, they do have the ability to either decrease the budget later on in September or shift funds around to cover other budgetary needs that may arise.
Planning for the 2009 fiscal year budget, county officials made an extra effort to not have to raise property taxes above the current 2008 figures in light of the lean economic times.
Although Idaho law allows counties and municipalities to raise property taxes by up to three percent each year, county commissioners asked their budget team to come to them with a preliminary budget that didn't take advantage of that ability to raise property taxes. Anything not funded in the proposed budget that would require the county to raise property taxes—such as funding requests from local nonprofits, initiatives or certain county projects—were considered on a case-by-case basis Tuesday.
In the end, the fact that too many funding needs would have been left on the cutting room floor forced the commissioners to edge towards taking the state-authorized property tax increase.
"I'd be shocked if we're not forced to take the three percent," Blaine County Commissioner Tom Bowman said.
Bowman said he thinks the Blaine County taxpaying public will understand the need to take the property increase once they see what funding needs would not have been met had they not done so. This includes funding for entities like the local Mountain Rides bus system, the Blaine Manor nursing home and the La Allianza multicultural center.
"I don't think the public would be troubled if we keep funding the nursing home and mountain rides," Bowman said.
For county homeowners, the property tax increase will mean a $1.75 increase per $100,000 in assessed home value. For the median home value of $450,000, this will translate into a $7.88 increase in their annual property taxes.
Because of the revenue shortfall county leaders are facing, they will still need to dip into the county's fund balance reserve to the tune of between $600,000 to $800,000 to meet funding needs even if they elect to use authorized the three-percent property tax increase.
One of the major headaches faced by the commissioners is that the level of funding requests from private entities in the county has more than doubled from last year's, Blaine County Administrator Mike McNees said last week.
Keeping the county from taking the three-percent property tax increase would have required the county to provide nothing in the way of funding to many of those non-profit entities. Angenie McCleary, the newest face on the Blaine County Commission, said Tuesday that she wasn't willing to place a zero in the funding column beside each of those entities.
However, those funding requests from those entities will most likely not be fully met, McCleary admitted.
"I would be okay with them decreasing," she said.
Property taxes are not the only source of revenue that contributes to the revenue side of the Blaine County budget. Only about a third of the revenue comes from property taxes. The remainder comes from sources like revenue sharing with the state on income and sales taxes, federal PILT (Payments in Lieu of Taxes) payments, liquor sales, state gas tax monies and fees from building permits and land-use applications.
