County officials react to budget cuts

The county budget has been finalized. Following Wednesday’s county commissioners meeting, the budget was set with $14.5 million in appropriations. All said, commissioners cut $844,444 from last year’s budget.

The largest cut came from the Sheriff’s Department, which took a $200,000 deduction. Road departments in Libby, Troy and Eureka each cut $25,000 from their budgets. Countywide, 16 departments took a five percent deduction.

Eureka Commissioner Mike Cole, who initially supported across-the-board cuts, said he believes the cuts went about as well as possible.

“I haven’t heard of anybody getting too much heartburn over it,” Cole said, adding that planned larger cuts to the road departments were put off in an effort to complete ongoing projects.

Cole said a reformatting of personnel positions in the Eureka annex motor vehicle office was a late change. The office has been staffed by one full-time employee and two part-time employees who combined to work less than 40 hours per week. Cole said the office has been busy lately, and in response to increased workload, the office will now be operated by one full-time employee and two half-time employees.

Lincoln County Clerk and Recorder Tammy Lauer said the change will add $9,791 to this year’s budget.

“It really seems to be the impact of this Canadian influx up there,” Lauer said.  “It keeps growing and growing.”

Lauer said the county will employ at least 10 fewer people during the new fiscal year.

Presiding Commissioner Tony Berget said the county attorney’s office was cut three percent after years of downsizing. He also mentioned that the library budget was cut slightly less than other departments.

“This was the first time the county commissioners saw an example of how the special district budgets were put together,” Berget said. “We had never been given that information before. The error really put us backward after we were on track to avoid deficit spending.”

Lincoln County’s financial future took a hit when a pair of excessive taxation errors, which had been annually implemented for 15 years, were identified. The errors cost taxpayers more than $1.6 million.

Looking forward, Berget, who was defeated in the June 3 primary, said the county may have to see what exactly it is legally required to fund.

“In three years, we may be down to providing mandated services,” Berget said. “Knowing that this was on the horizon, we tried to get every major road project done in the last six years. It’s tough with the cost of materials skyrocketing.”

Cole echoed Berget’s comments on future cuts.

“Obviously, the cutting is not over yet,” Cole said. “I don’t think anything is off the table.”