Panhandle Health presents FY26 budget; Bonner County share rises $18,176 to $531,010

Panhandle Health presented its proposed fiscal year 2026 budget to Bonner County commissioners during a meeting addressing Northern Idaho public-health funding and services. The district's county allocation for Bonner County is calculated at $531,009.72, an increase of $18,176 from the prior year, and the presentation stressed both program needs and uncertainty over federal and state funding.

The budget matters because Panhandle Health provides clinical, environmental and nutrition services across five northern Idaho counties; district staff told commissioners the region served by the district is shifting and that federal and state funding streams are unsettled. "Bonner County is where we do a significant amount of our of the work second only to Kootenai County," the Panhandle Health director said during the presentation.

At a glance: the district built a FY26 budget that keeps the overall county levy ask level with last year, but allocations change by county based on population and valuation. The county-allocation formula is 70% population and 30% taxable market value; using those inputs, Bonner County's share rose about 4% in dollar terms. Christine, a Panhandle Health presenter, said the budget includes a 3% general pay increase that carries a $167,000 price tag and that the district's full-time-equivalent staffing drops from 100 FTEs budgeted in FY25 to 91 FTEs in FY26: "the fiscal year 25 budget was budgeted at FTEs of 100,…