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Commissioners hear budget pressure warning and concerns about operating costs for Columbia Valley recovery center
Summary
County administrator and commissioners described tightening finances during budget workshops and raised questions about operating costs and contracts for the Columbia Valley Center for Recovery, including an estimate that staffing needs could exceed local mental-health sales-tax revenues.
Franklin County officials said Oct. 15 that the county faces mounting budget pressure as departments submit new funding requests and as the operating cost for a planned Columbia Valley Center for Recovery remains unclear.
County Administrator Brian Danzel told commissioners the county’s cash position was workable at the start of the budget process but that repeated, legitimate requests from departments are widening the gap. Danzel said the county began the budget process roughly $48,000 short of a balanced budget and that additional requests push the county further from balance.
"I just wanted to be fully transparent," Danzel told the board, adding that unknowns remain, including cost-of-living adjustments, health-care premium changes and property and liability-insurance increases.
One commissioner raised specific concerns about the Columbia Valley Center for Recovery, which county and regional officials have announced as an upcoming behavioral-health facility. That commissioner said materials presented to the county indicate the center could require about 144 full-time employees to operate and estimated, using the county’s average cost per employee, that initial annual operating payroll could be in the roughly $15 million range. The commissioner contrasted that estimate with a combined Benton–Franklin County mental-health sales-tax revenue figure the commissioner said runs between $9 million and $10 million.
"I don't know what it's going to cost to operate that facility," the commissioner said, and noted a startup figure told to the board of about $3.75 million to begin operations. The commissioner said he had asked the county administrator to follow up with BJ Olson, chairman of the regional mental-health advisory board, to get written answers to outstanding cost and contract questions.
Danzel also updated the board on a federal Rural Prosperity Summit scheduled for March 26 in Pasco. He said federal agencies including the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Small Business Administration and representatives from Housing and Urban Development are expected to attend. Danzel asked that at least one commissioner consider delivering opening remarks.
What happens next: administrators and relevant advisory boards were asked to supply more detailed, written cost and contract information about the Columbia Valley Center for Recovery so the board can assess budget implications during remaining workshops and ahead of final 2026 budget adoption.
