Kootenai County reviews FY26 district court budget; staff attorney request drives roughly $70,000 net increase

Kootenai County Commissioners on May 22 reviewed the district courtFY26 budget, with District Court Director Lisa Cheesbrough telling the commission the courtis proposing a $36,000 reduction to its B budget while requesting additional A-budget funding primarily to pay for a full-time staff attorney tied to a newly authorized judge.

Cheesbrough said the departmental materials provided to commissioners show an overall decrease in the B budget of "$36,000" using auditorsnumbers and explained which line items produced the change. "We didn't put [noncapital equipment] as a decrease in our analysis because we didn't use it last year, but it did give us a $28,000 decrease when auditors ran it," she said. She also described a $19,399 credit tied to a line for a programmer/building expansion that does not apply this year.

The review mattered because the county must absorb ongoing costs that come with adding a judge, and the court asked for a loaded cost for a new full-time…