County to Earmark Sunset Mental‑Behavioral Health Tax Residual for Jail Medical Contracts; Departments to Seek General‑Fund Backfill

Kathy Funk Baxter, county finance director, told county commissioners at a budget workshop that the county projects about $2.7 million in residual proceeds from a mental‑behavioral health tax that has since sunset and that staff recommends using those funds to cover portions of the jail’s medical contract for 2026–27.

The residual is “not sufficient to continue a full year of funding for all of the departments” that had been supported by the tax, Baxter said. She said the jail’s medical contract is “well over $2,000,000,” and that applying the residual to the jail’s medical costs would exhaust the funds during 2027.

Why it matters: departments including drug court, mental health court, juvenile services, the clerk’s office, public defender and prosecuting attorney offices, and two behavioral health positions in the sheriff’s office have previously received partial funding from the now‑sunset tax. Commissioners were presented with line‑item estimates and told those departments will need to seek alternative funding or general‑fund support to keep positions whole after the residual is spent.

Discussion and context

Baxter summarized department allocations that had relied on the tax: drug court roughly $470,000; mental health court about $164,000; juvenile services about $148,000; sheriff’s behavioral health positions about $274,000; and portions of positions in the public defender and prosecuting attorney offices. She said some departments had already addressed the shortfall by collapsing vacant positions and shifting funding so individual employees could remain in place.

Sheriff Brad Thurman spoke in favor of keeping the sheriff’s behavioral health unit. “We currently have 2 workers,” Thurman said, and “the cost for going forward is about $254,000 a year for the 2.” He said the unit was originally funded for four staff in 2023, reduced because of attrition and program evaluation, and that the sheriff’s office will present a request in its general budget on the 30th.

Dallas Steeler Grange, program manager for therapeutic courts, explained that drug court handles arrested defendants with drug charges and mental health court serves arrested defendants with a mental health disorder; both tracks require participation by prosecutors and defense counsel and must meet state team composition requirements for those courts.

Next steps and department options

Baxter said the staff recommendation for the workshop was to earmark the remaining tax residual for the jail medical contract for 2026–27. Departments that previously received tax funding will have at least two opportunities to request ongoing support from the general fund: during personnel request hearings and when presenting their departmental budgets. Baxter said those hearings will resume in October (the personnel presentation date was given as Oct. 7), when departments can “speak more to what the person's duties are performing and contributions to the county.”

Commissioners pressed for more granularity on the line items and for comparative data about program outcomes. One commissioner said they have asked for outcome data on drug court previously and had not received it. Dallas Steeler Grange said she would gather program information and that the county’s drug court has been observed by other Washington counties as a model.

What was decided

Staff proposed and commissioners accepted the plan to earmark the residual for jail medical services for 2026–27 and to require affected departments to request continued funding through the normal personnel and budget processes. No formal vote was recorded at the workshop; the proposal was described as the budget direction for the next biennium absent other changes.

Ending

Departments dependent on the sunset tax were instructed to prepare personnel and budget justifications in October if they wish the county to cover those positions with general‑fund dollars after the residual is exhausted. Finance staff will return with more detailed, department‑level breakdowns when requested.