Yakima County budget deficit doubles

YAKIMA, Wash. -- A hole in Yakima County's 2010 budget that has county commissioners talking about reducing courthouse hours just got deeper.

The county has learned it won't get $600,000 it had been counting on from a state fund for economically distressed counties.

So, what had been a $500,000 budget gap is now $1.1 million.

County Commissioner Mike Leita said Monday the news is so new that commissioners haven't had a chance to discuss what to do.

Using reserves is a possibility. More cuts also may be in play.

Commissioners are considering asking unions for a 10 percent reduction in hours for most employees that would meet the initial $500,000 in needed savings.

Commissioners don't want to dip into reserves more than they already have, but drawing on the $5 million reserve piggy bank may be the best option.

A pledge to pay back a total of $500,000 taken from reserves last year resulted in the initial $500,000 budget shortage even before the ink dried on the 2010 budget.

In response to declining revenues and rising expenses, the county let 26 people go from the county's payroll at the start of this year and reduced spending by $1.6 million.

"I think it will be an interesting month or two here to come to some substantive solution," Leita said.

This latest piece of bad news deals with sales tax revenue -- not in Yakima County so much but elsewhere in the state.

The Legislature authorized the program in 2005 as a way to help struggling counties that tend to lag behind the more prosperous counties in revenues.

County Treasurer Ilene Thomson said this year marks the first time the county has failed to qualify for money.

Ironically, it is because sales were stronger in Yakima County last year than the rest of the state that the county finds itself in trouble.

Yakima County has received money every year because per capita sales tax spending in the unincorporated area of the county has always been well below the state average.

The per capita average for sales tax in Yakima County actually improved last year when much of the rest of the state struggled.

What had been a statewide per capita average of $66.79 in sales tax generated for the 2008 fiscal year fell to $63.76 for fiscal 2009, according to state estimates.

Counties of Yakima's size had to have a per capita average below 70 percent of the statewide average, which is $44.63 this year, to receive money.

While the statewide average declined, Yakima County's average rose from $46.24 in 2008 to $46.74 in 2009.

The combination of a declining statewide average and the local growth will leave Yakima County out in the cold this year.

"The hole has grown," Leita added.

* David Lester can be reached at 509-577-7674 or dlester@yakimaherald.com.