Like many Lewis County departments, the sheriff’s office is seeking a budget increase this year, hoping to cover the costs of existing services and staff.
At the same time, some existing funding sources for the agency are uncertain at best.
The Lewis County Board of Commissioners met Tuesday morning for the second of three day-long budget meetings, which included a presentation from the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.
The county’s largest law enforcement agency faces a serious budget gap.
While costs increase, it is also likely to lose a funding source that previously funded two deputies’ salaries and benefits.
During the meeting, Commissioner Lindsey Pollock also renewed a multi-year effort to end a long-running fund transfer from the county roads budget to the sheriff’s office, calling for the funding to come from a different source — possibly the county general fund.
Lewis County Undersheriff Kevin Engelbertson presented a preliminary budget for his office, proposing roughly $23.25 million in spending for 2027 between both the law enforcement side of the department and the operation of the Lewis County Jail. The cost to operate each is roughly even, with law enforcement coming in at about $11.8 million in expected spending and the jail coming in at around $11.5.
Last year's approved budget for the sheriff’s office came in at just over $21.6 million.
Engelbertson pointed out that while it may require more funding from the general fund to do so, the office is only seeking enough funding to maintain existing services.
“We're not asking for any additional services,” Engelbertson said Tuesday morning. “We're asking to keep the services we currently have. Those services are important for what we do, and they're very needed.”
The main budget concerns for the sheriff’s office come from ever-rising costs of providing medical services in the Lewis County Jail and uncertain funding from other sources.
For the last two years, the office has received funds awarded to Lewis County as part of a legal settlement, but those settlement payouts are expected to dwindle significantly in 2027.
Lewis County has been and continues to be a beneficiary of lawsuits filed against opioid manufacturers, which has resulted in significant settlement payouts in recent years. Since 2025, the county has used those settlement funds to pay for two deputy positions, but according to Lewis County Budget Administrator Becky Butler, those payouts are expected to diminish this year, leaving a funding gap to cover the cost of current staffing levels.
“Commissioners graciously moved that funding to fund those two deputy positions with the opioid funds for 2025 and 2026, so we did not lose two additional deputies from our patrol staff,” Engelbertson said. “What we're asking for is to fund those positions.”
According to the office’s budget request, it should cost the agency $427,334.00 to fund those positions in 2027, but according to Butler the county is likely to receive roughly $250,000 a year from existing settlements. She added that there is still ongoing litigation that could yield payouts, but their outcomes are uncertain as of now.
For the jail, the office is requesting an increase of $171,723 for prisoner care to address a yearly increase in the cost of contracting with a medical provider and the end of a funding option coming from the state.
On top of it all, Pollock would also like the commission to seek a new funding source for more than $1 million in funding that is regularly transferred from the county roads fund to the sheriff’s office. That comes as the county’s roads fund is facing a structural deficit in the coming years.
“My position is we can no longer afford that transfer,” Pollock said.
In a heated exchange with her fellow commissioners, Scott Brummer and Sean Swope, Pollock alleged that the transfer was leading to a misunderstanding in the public of the county’s budget outlook.
“We’ve been hiding the health of the general fund by taking out of the roads fund, and statements are being made that we are in the black, that we’ve got extra funding,” she said.
She also connected the public misconception to a public attitude that the county does not need a public safety tax to support the sheriff’s office budget.
“I’ve heard a lot of chatter out there that there’s absolutely no need for a public safety tax,” Pollock said. “I’m not a fan of increased taxes, but we just need to present everything to the public.”
Lewis County recently convened a Law and Justice Council to consider pursuing a voter-approved sales tax to support public safety. That tax has become a popular subject of conversation during this year's county elections, with candidates for county sheriff and county commissioner — including Brummer — often arguing the tax should not be pursued until a new sheriff is elected. With Sheriff Rob Snaza retiring, either former Centralia Police Department Sgt. Tracy Murphy or Lewis County Sheriff’s Office Special Services Chief Gabriel Frase will become sheriff, with voters deciding that race during the Nov. 3 general election.
Pollock's fellow commissioners pushed back, with Brummer pointing out that the transfer from the roads fund has been a practice of the county government since at least the 1990s. In the last few years, the transfer has fluctuated between around $1.1 and $1.5 million.
Brummer and Swope also initially raised concerns that eliminating the transfer would lead to losing as many as seven sheriff’s deputies.
“It’s a prioritization of spending. That’s 100%, and I’m absolutely not going to advocate that we cut any of those positions and backfill any of that money that was previously transferred,” Brummer said.
Pollock denied the claim that eliminating the transfer would mean eliminating the positions, instead arguing the money should come from the county general fund and adding she would support doing “everything we can to maintain the positions.” While conceding that the transfer was not the source of a structural funding deficit facing the county rounds fund, she argued that regardless of the cost, the county could no longer afford to make the transfer.
Pollock has long been opposed to the yearly transfer of funds from the roads fund to the sheriff’s office.
The sum of the transfer last year was a major reason for the commissioner voting against the county’s 2026 budget. It was still approved 2-1.
For reporting by The Chronicle on the recent Lewis County roads fund presentation and the fund’s predicted structural deficit, visit https://tinyurl.com/2z88ya43.
