Bonner County draft budget includes step increases and $1-per-hour flat COLA, commissioners agree to publish

Bonner County commissioners on Wednesday approved publishing a draft budget that includes step increases for employees and a $1-per-hour flat COLA, with funds held in contingency to address remaining benchmarking and pay-band decisions.

The move comes after staff presented revenue and expense estimates used to build the draft. Jessica, a county staff member responsible for budget figures, said the county is projecting “just over 30,000,000 outside of taxes” in non-tax revenue and about “37,000,000 in tax revenue,” and that the draft assumes carrying forward just under $9,000,000 in cash to balance the budget.

Why it matters: salary and benefits are the largest single jump in the proposed spending plan. Commissioners said the step increases combined with the flat COLA better equalize pay changes across job classes than a percentage-only adjustment and give managers a clearer way to reward performance where merited.

Most important facts: staff estimated the incremental costs for different COLA options. Jessica gave the board three comparisons during the workshop: a 2% COLA, a 3% COLA and the flat-dollar option. In staff’s figures presented to the board, “2% over the step increase would be $550,678; 3% would be $826,016; the dollar ended up being 876,216,” Jessica said. Commissioners said they prefer the flat-dollar approach because a percent-based COLA disproportionately benefits higher-paid workers.

Discussion versus next steps: commissioners directed that the board hold some dollars in contingency while the new human-resources director completes a market-benchmarking review and finalizes job descriptions and pay bands. Several commissioners said the step/grade revisions and improved performance-appraisal procedures are “phase 1” of a longer effort to make pay decisions more granular and defensible. The board did not adopt additional permanent pay changes beyond the step increases and $1 COLA at the meeting; it approved publishing the draft budget with those assumptions and reserving funds to address remaining equity adjustments during the fiscal year.

Commissioners noted operational expectations tied to the new approach: department heads and elected officials must perform more detailed, defensible performance evaluations and avoid ad-hoc job-description changes that are used solely to increase pay outside of a formal HR-managed process. The board said it expects HR to present a standardized evaluation form and provide training to managers to support consistent implementation.

Ending note: staff will publish the draft budget reflecting the step increases and the $1-per-hour COLA and continue HR-led benchmarking work; the board intends to revisit targeted adjustments from contingency after the benchmarking and job-description reviews are complete.