Lewis County Auditor Larry Grove stands by the county's drive up ballot drop box located on Northwest Chehalis Avenue and Northwest Center Street in May 2016.
Amid Washington-wide efforts to challenge costs imposed upon counties by the Legislature, Lewis County has been vocal about the so-called unfunded mandates that officials say create a massive burden on their budgets.
“As revenue comes in other places, it’s not coming in so quickly for the counties,” said county commissioner Edna Fund. “We’re kind of the stepchild.”
All of Washington’s 39 counties have taken issue with unfunded mandates, a term generally used for financial burdens required by the state for which state lawmakers do not provide an adequate amount of the cost.
For example, counties are required by the state to provide public defenders to represent defendants who cannot afford an attorney. In Lewis County, the cost for that service last year came to more than $1.5 million — $1.2 million of which was paid by the county. In about half of states, the cost for public defenders is paid entirely by the state government. Washington, meanwhile, covers only about 4 percent of that cost, leaving the counties to pick up the rest.
Public defenders are just one of an ever-growing list of unfunded mandates that counties say the state has neglected — and legal action may be on the horizon. The Washington State Association of Counties, which has spearheaded efforts to address unfunded mandates, will be pushing for new bills on public defender funding in the next legislative session, with the threat of a court battle looming if they fail.
“Absent a significant investment on the part of the state, the (counties) have directed the analysis of what litigation to pursue,” said WSAC executive director Eric Johnson.
State Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia, worked with WSAC on a proposal last year that would have gradually phased in full funding for public defenders. The bill failed to pass the Legislature, but Braun said the issue needs to be addressed.
“There’s no question under the current environment there is significant cost for all the counties,” he said. “This will continue to get attention in the Legislature. … I don’t think it’s going to happen in one step.”
Braun noted that Washington’s public defender system has largely been the same since statehood, but new caseload standards imposed by a court ruling have raised costs in recent years — a burden not imposed by lawmakers.
“The reality is this is a new cost for the counties, and it is a significant new cost,” he said. “We have to look for ways to help them.”
The public defender battle is part of a multi-pronged approach, the most recent focus of which is ballot boxes. Last year, the Legislature passed a law requiring counties to provide more ballot drop boxes. In Lewis County, the cost for each came to roughly $35,000; the state provided about $1,000 each, according to Fund.
“It’s like a different reality,” she said. “It’s not because we don’t want people vote, just give us the money to do it.”
Though the dollar amount for the ballot boxes is a pittance compared to other mandates that have drawn the ire of the counties, WSAC has focused its attention on the issue because it sees it as a clear-cut violation of a 1995 state law. That law prevents the Legislature from requiring counties to provide “new programs or increased levels of service” unless they are “fully reimbursed by the state.” Though the unfunded mandate term is used more generally for costs that don’t meet that legal threshold, WSAC believes the ballot box issue is a clear-cut violation.
“They pretty blatantly violated the statute,” Johnson said. “There is a clear statutory definition that we would challenge from a legal perspective.”
Braun agreed that legislators need to provide funding for the ballot boxes.
“The counties are right on this issue, and we should fix it,” he said. “I think there will be an effort next year to make them more voluntary for the counties or to fund them. … Regardless of the size of the problem, we should follow the law.”
At Braun’s behest, Lewis County provided a 19-page list outlining what it believes to be some of the unfunded mandates its been saddled with. It pointed to other items like medical care for prisoners, which also costs the county in the neighborhood of $1 million a year. That price tag has more than doubled since 2014, and the rising costs for that and other mandates have far outpaced state funding and the county’s ability to raise revenue.
“(Lewis County) continues to look at reducing and/or elimination of valuable services to citizens in order to comply with the ongoing additions of unfunded and underfunded mandates and the rising cost of those already in place,” said the document put out by the county.
While praising the document provided by the county, Braun said the unfunded mandate issue is not as wide-ranging as counties claim.
“There’s this penchant for claiming the root of all evils county governments face is unfunded mandates,” he said. “Some things I can agree with and we’re working on, and some things are a little more complicated. Some things get called unfunded mandates that really aren’t. That was a great effort by them. They took the time to dedicate it to writing.”
County manager Erik Martin said officials will soon be forced to make tough decisions if they continue to absorb more state-mandated costs.
“We’re really talking about services to the public,” he said. “That’s what’s going to reduce. I don’t know if there’s anything we can do about that if the train continues the way it is. … It’s tough. It’s really tough.”
County budget manager Becky Butler cited the polarizing decision to transfer the county’s senior centers to a nonprofit as one of the difficult moves that has been made because of financial conditions brought on by unfunded mandates. Since the county has cut staff to the point where it can’t afford more attrition, it will continue to look at cutting non-mandated programs if costs keep rising, she said.
“We’re always looking at those tough decisions,” Butler said. “We cut over 100 positions in 2010, 2011 and 2012. … Cutting staff any more is going to be difficult.”
According to Fund, much of the unfunded mandates have been imposed on the Sheriff’s Office, the court system and the jail.
“Eighty percent of our general fund is law and justice,” she said. “If we could spend 100 percent of our general fund on law and justice, it wouldn’t be enough.”
Despite that, the county is wary that a new mandate in another area could upend its budget completely. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Washington State would need to spend billions of dollars to replace culverts that block the passage of salmon, ending a long legal battle between the state and Northwest Indian tribes.
Already, the county has already seen massive increases in the costs to replace its culverts, thanks to state laws for fish passage. Instead of just laying a pipe, workers must build a bigger concrete box that allows fish to pass through, which according to Martin can cost 10 times as much — upwards of $1 million for some culverts.
If a similar ruling to the one for state culverts were to be applied to the counties, Lewis County would be forced to replace thousands of culverts at a six-figure cost per project. Instead of taking on those projects as old culverts need replacing, it would be hit with that cost over a much shorter period of time.
“We’re sitting here going, ‘We’re next,’” said Martin, who until recently was the county’s Public Works director. “With the magnitude of work that needs to be done, I don’t know where that money would come from.”
Because the culvert mandate would come from the court and not the Legislature, it would be exempt from the unfunded mandate law that counties are hoping will protect them from some other burdens. But WSAC is optimistic that the unity of its counties can at least send a message to lawmakers to think twice about future mandates. \
“We represent urban counties, rural counties, big counties, small counties,” said Pierce County Councilman Derek Young, who co-chairs WSAC’s Legislative Steering Committee. “But we all face these same issues. … We’ve reached a breaking point. Something has to change.”
Butler echoed that sentiment.
“Every county, no matter the size, is fighting the same battles that Lewis County is,” she said. “You kind of hear the same story — coming out of the recession is not as quick for the counties.”
As Lewis County works through its budgeting process for another year, it will continue adding to the document of the Legislature-imposed costs that it believes have created an undue burden on its finances, hoping that outlining such specific mandates will help make the case for a legislative fix.
We’re just not crying wolf,” Fund said.
