Lewis County Commissioners and staff hold a public budget meeting Monday evening at the Historic Lewis County Courthouse in Chehalis.
More than a dozen Lewis County residents crowded into a meeting room in the basement of the historic courthouse Monday for the county’s first presentation of its 2019 budget. For a weeknight budget presentation, it was quite a crowd.
“I congratulate you all for being here,” said county commissioner Edna Fund. “Usually it’s just (former commissioner) Ron Averill and the press.”
Those in attendance Monday heard Fund and her colleagues explain the financial challenges facing Lewis County, before presenting a budget that’s slated to draw heavily on the county’s general fund reserves. Commissioners blamed rising costs, state-imposed mandates and declines in revenue sources such as timber for the fiscal strain.
The budget presented Monday would pull $3.6 million from county reserves to make ends meet in 2019, although officials stressed that number should not be taken at face value. Lewis County budgets both incoming and outgoing funds conservatively — occasional vacant positions will provide salary relief, and revenues will likely exceed the numbers in the document.
This year, the county has operated at a small surplus, despite originally budgeting to pull $1.8 million from reserves. However, much of that course correction was from an unexpected, one-time payment from a federal program.
“(The 2019 budget) still keeps our reserve at an appropriate level,” said Budget Manager Becky Butler. “We budget for every position we fill, for everything to be spent. That rarely happens. We budget revenue conservatively.”
The budget as drafted would bring Lewis County down to about $6 million remaining in the reserve fund, and county officials have said $5 million is a mark they will not go below. Even nearing the $6 million mark would set off alarm bells long before the reserves were spent, Butler added.
“That would be worst-case scenario,” she said. “I don’t think the commissioners would let that happen. … That’s not going to happen.”
Still, the need to use that much of the reserve fund — if only on paper — speaks to the many challenges facing the county. The government has seen rising costs in its state-mandated coverage of indigent legal defense and jail medical service, as well as employee healthcare costs.
Meanwhile, the timber revenues that helped drive the county’s funding in the past have long dwindled.
“We don’t have that steady stream of money coming in,” said commissioner Gary Stamper, describing his efforts to urge federal and state land managers to allow more timber harvesting. “It’s very challenging.”
Amid all that, County Manager Erik Martin described the looming threat of culvert replacement, following a court ruling in which tribal leaders forced the state of Washington to replace culverts that block fish passage. Lewis County has more than 600 such culverts, and replacing them would cost more than $185 million if the county was hit with the same mandate as the state.
“It’s a huge dark cloud looming over us,” Martin said.
Even with all those challenges, Treasurer Arny Davis argued for the importance of maintaining a more robust reserve. Ailing infrastructure, he noted, could pose sudden problems that require a cash reserve to handle.
“I would argue that ($6 million) is not enough,” he said. “I was much more comfortable with Lewis County with $12 to $15 million in reserve than where we’re at today … I’m concerned for Lewis County with that potential liability going forward.”
Butler explained that the commission started the budget process by giving each department a limitation they could budget within, then fielding additional requests beyond that on a case-by-case basis. Of the $1.5 million in additional funding asked for by department heads, only about $500,000 was approved.
Martin, a former department head himself, moved from Public Works into the county manager role in August.
“This was the first budget process I went through from this side,” he said. “These people really do care about being good stewards of the public money. What you’ll see tonight is really their best effort.”
The meeting saw friendly questions and polite exchanges, with citizens expressing more curiosity than forcefulness.
“Community involvement is definitely something we work toward and getting people involved in the budget process,” Butler said. “Understanding what those numbers mean is very important.”
Commissioners will hold a public hearing on the budget on Dec. 3.
