Kootenai County trims FY26 draft budget, cuts ALPR funding and removes frozen deputy positions

Kootenai County commissioners on July 23 directed staff to make several targeted changes to the county's FY26 draft budget, including removing two previously frozen sheriff deputy positions, cutting $24,000 for mobile automated license-plate reader (ALPR) data storage and reducing a proposed land purchase for Search and Rescue.

Brandy Falcon, county finance staff, told the board the draft budget shows a $678,000 surplus at a 3% tax increase and a $58,000 surplus at a 2% tax increase with no cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). "If we do the 1% COLA scenario, we are only $14,000 deficit at a 3% tax increase," Falcon said. She said those figures exclude any revenues the county is still waiting to receive from the City of Hayden and that she plans to present a balanced budget on July 31 "with or without Hayden's revenue."

The board agreed to several operational and capital adjustments during the meeting. Commissioners instructed staff to remove two frozen patrol positions that had been requested by the sheriff's office and to cut the $24,000 line item for mobile ALPR data storage after multiple commissioners said they preferred to wait for a fuller presentation on the program's community effect and investigative benefit. "That is a officer safety feature. That is a investigative tool, and we have not had any breaches into that system," Robert Norris, Kootenai County sheriff, said in defense of the ALPR program; commissioners nonetheless directed the cut for FY26.

Commissioners also approved a reduction in a capital request to buy airport-owned land for Search and Rescue from $160,000 to $144,000 after Commissioner Duncan said she had discussed a lower price with airport staff. The board further directed that a planned upgrade for exterior/interior assessor office doors to electronic access control be removed from FY26 and considered as part of a broader, campus-wide access-control project.

On personnel matters, the board agreed to fund regrades requested by the county prosecutor but rejected additional step increases the prosecutor had sought. "After seeing these figures today, I would agree to, just the regrade and set the steps if it's gonna help the county get cost of living raises," Stan Mortensen, county prosecutor, said; he later confirmed he would forgo the extra steps.

Falcon presented proposed changes to employee health-premium splits that she said are already baked into the draft: a flat-percentage approach for each coverage tier (for example, setting employee-only to roughly 6% of the total monthly premium and employee-spouse to about 15%) and raising the nicotine surcharge from $70 to $80 per month. Falcon said the county's total health-plan costs rose substantially this year and that the county's total plan increase is larger than industry broker figures because of additional items the broker does not track.

The board discussed whether to levy $299,330 to recover property-tax revenue lost to prior-year valuation judgments. Falcon described the levy as a reimbursement outside the operating budget rather than a change to the tax base. "It's nominal and we would have been charging it all along had those things not happened," one commissioner said, estimating the impact at roughly $2 to $3 per parcel.

Commissioners left more consequential choices for later this month. The board did not set a final COLA or tax-rate decision; Falcon told commissioners that if the City of Hayden informs the county of revenue sharing the county will incorporate that information before publishing the budget. Falcon said, as a back-of-the-envelope example, if Hayden contributes $1.4 million and the county adopted a 2.5% COLA and a 2.5% tax increase, the draft would be "just about balanced." She repeated that she plans to present a balanced budget on July 31.

Public comment during the meeting centered on staffing and retention in the sheriff's office and the jail. Evan Smith, who said he works for the sheriff's office and represents employees informally, described mandatory overtime in the jail and urged a larger COLA for employees: "The amount of overtime that have been paid out, by the taxpayers has just been tremendous." Andrew Mohawk, vice president of the local Fraternal Order of Police lodge, warned commissioners the county risks losing experienced deputies if compensation and benefits do not remain competitive. "By this time next year, we could be looking at a lot of people leaving," he said.

Commissioners said they want a holistic approach to future personnel requests, particularly law enforcement positions or school resource officer (SRO) arrangements that reassign patrol deputies into specialized roles and then require backfill. One commissioner urged the sheriff's office to provide a fuller service-level and financial-impact presentation when the positions are requested again.

Falcon said the county is using roughly $3.1 million of fund balance for one-time expenses and $2.3 million for ongoing items in the current draft and reiterated that health-care cost pressures and new facilities are raising ongoing operational costs. She asked commissioners to think about their preferred COLA and tax-rate scenarios before the July 31 presentation.

The board scheduled an additional meeting before July 31 if needed to finalize the balanced budget and said staff should return with any updated numbers from the City of Hayden and with presentations on items the board asked to be reconsidered.

Ending: The board adjourned after a brief public-comment period; Falcon will publish the draft balanced budget July 31 and incorporate the commissioners' instructions to remove the frozen positions, cut ALPR storage funding, lower the SAR land request to $144,000, and remove the assessor keypad project pending a campus-wide plan. Final COLA and tax-rate choices remain pending.