By any name – adjustment, reduction or downward projection – a $12.5 million cut in 2010 General Fund spending, proposed by the Clark County Budget Office late last week, remains a painful reminder of the continuing affects of a prolonged and deep recession.
The proposed cuts are especially sobering for so-called General Fund departments, such as the Clark County Sheriff's office, which now faces the third downward budget adjustment in a 12-month period.
Already buffeted by two previous budget reductions in December 2008 and this summer, the Sheriff's office will lose 17 deputies, 18 custody positions, a support supervisor and a food services coordinator by Dec. 31 if county commissioners approve the Budget Office's recommendations, says Clark County Sheriff Garry Lucas.
According to Lucas, the reduction in the number of deputies would place Clark County last among Washington state counties in terms of officer-per-citizen ratio, as well as reduce the department's ability to respond to crises that demand a lot of manpower, such as earthquakes, industrial accidents and terrorist attacks.
"Whether we are at the bottom, or near the bottom, there will be fewer deputies on the street and call times will go up," Lucas said.
Law enforcement wasn't the only division taking a hit as revenue collected from the boom in commercial and residential development nose-dived late last year. Through a combination of attrition and offers of early retirement, 228 full-time positions have been eliminated county-wide in the past year, with more job cuts on the way.
According to sources at the county, a report to be released by the auditor's office later this week is expected to reflect 2010 General Fund staffing at levels below that of 2000 – a remarkable contraction in terms of workforce in a county seeing a population rise of 23 percent in the last decade, based on 2008 adjusted U.S. Census statistics.
Glenn Olson, deputy county administrator, called the "permanent, ongoing structural revenue shortfall" driving the budget cuts the result of a combination of forces beginning with the 2001 passage of Initiative 747, which placed a one-percent limit on property tax increases statewide that Clark County voters approved by an overwhelming 71 to 29 percent.
"What happened since 2001 was a housing boom which masked the effect of structural revenue changes," Olson said. "Since that effect has been unmasked, you can expect permanent flattening of revenue from here on out, unless something else changes for the better."
That something else – namely, a return to 2007 levels of residential and commercial development in Clark County, will not be happening anytime soon, according to Bart Phillips, president of the Columbia River Economic Development Council. "Definitely, there has been a bit of a reset button in the economy, and it's going to take a few years to get back to where we came from," Phillips said.
Despite the drop in revenue in the near-term, Phillips doesn't see tax increases being politically or economically feasible, especially given the lingering effects of the recession on businesses and individuals throughout the region. "There is a mismatch between our desire for services and the public's willingness to support them," he said.
Meanwhile, county budget analysts continue to scramble to fill a $12.4 million hole caused by revenue decreases, as well as $4.5 million decline in investment interest. And making matters worse for county's bottom line, property taxes are set to decrease since inflation fell below the one-percent cap set by I-747.
Some of the measures taken thus far include a reduction of the county's Meth Tax program going toward treatment for methamphetamine addicts, a decline of 20 percent in the county road maintenance and improvement budget and a transfer of major direct service programs such as WIC, clinic services and HIV/AIDS prevention from the Health Department to nonprofit groups at reduced funding levels.
Despite the severity of the cutbacks, the bleak budget situation could have been much worse, according to Phillips. "This is a brutal recession," he said. "I believe the county, and the state, have done a good job of seeing their way through."
