County holding public hearing on preliminary budget
The Lincoln County Commissioners will hold a public hearing Wednesday on its preliminary budget for the next fiscal year.
The hearing will be held at 11 a.m. in the commissioner’s office in the county courthouse in Libby.
The final budget resolution and adoption will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 3, Commissioner’s Office. The Commission invites and encourages the public to attend. Public hearings are for the purpose of hearing comments regarding the budget appropriations and revenues.
Preliminary Budget information is available at the Lincoln County Courthouse, Finance Office.
The county is currently about $1.6 million in the red. It’s a place county officials have been on a regular basis for the last number of years. Before determining what levied mills were worth last year, the budget deficit was $2.7 million in 2024. After that determination, the deficit was about $637,000.
In 2024, the county used $636,958 from $12 million in Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency Fund (LATCF) money it received in fiscal years 2022-23. In 2023, the initial shortfall was $1.6 million.
LATCF is a general revenue enhancement program that provides additional assistance to eligible tribal governments, eligible revenue sharing counties and eligible revenue sharing consolidated governments. It was part of the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act that resulted from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Federal money and cuts to certain department budgets have allowed the county to maintain a balanced budget.
District 2 Commissioner Jim Hammons told The Western News, the commissioners were going to talk to officials in the sheriff’s office and library Monday about how to decrease the deficit.
According to minutes from a budget meeting in April, the sheriff’s preliminary budget shows $300,000 for vehicles. District 1 Commissioner Brent Teske said there was $70,000 in the current vehicle budget. Sheriff Darren Short said the money will be used for outfitting the recently bought vehicles.
Undersheriff John Hyslop mentioned new legislation affecting detention officer pay. It will include longevity pay and will be retroactive, resulting in a large part of the budget increase.
Short and Hyslop also said every time an inmate clogged a toilet, it cost the county $800 to get it taken care of.
New radios are also being sought by the sheriff’s office. Short said the department’s current radios are no longer supported by the dispatch operating system and how they only “speak” to other Motorola devices, not other brands. Short said maintenance with the current radio system would cost the county $60,000, but that could be avoided if new radios were bought.
Wage and insurance increases were also part of the increased budget.
According to minutes from a budget meeting in April with Library Director Dustina Deans, its budget was looking at a $60,000 increase due to deferred maintenance at the Troy branch.
It needed work on the roof and heating system. Deans also said other increased costs included trash pickup, maintenance and janitorial. In addition, another increased cost was for new education, including buying large text and audio books.
County officials have approved cost of living increases over the last several years in an effort to keep up with inflation and to retain employees.
The COLA increase in fiscal year 2022-23 was 2.5% and in FY 2023-24 it was 5%. In 2024-25, it was 1.5%. For 2025-26, the increase is 5% for elected officials. That was mostly paid for after investments earned the county $243,689.