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Panhandle Health presents FY26 budget to Kootenai County; county ask unchanged
Summary
Panhandle Health District officials reviewed a FY2026 budget with Kootenai County commissioners, saying the district is holding the county funding request steady while projecting modest internal cost increases and shifting use of opioid settlement funds.
Panhandle Health District representatives Eric Kettner and Christine Crummer presented the district's proposed fiscal year 2026 budget to the Kootenai County Board of Commissioners on April 22, 2025, saying the county funding request remains unchanged from the prior year.
The budget matters because Panhandle Health provides environmental health, food and childcare inspections, maternal home‑visiting and other services to five northern Idaho counties, with the primary office and largest service population in Kootenai County. Christine Crummer said the district is not increasing its county ask: "we're not asking for any more funding than we did in the last year." The presentation outlined program changes driven by shifting state and federal priorities and by anticipated federal budget adjustments.
Kettner told commissioners about uncertainty in grant funding and said roughly half of the district's revenue comes from grants passed through the state. The proposed FY26 revenue and expenditure highlights Crummer presented include: a $368,000 decrease in the use of prior‑year reserves (that change reflects moving opioid settlement spending from reserves to incoming settlement receipts); about $49,000 more in environmental health license and fee revenue anticipated; an $82,000 increase tied to Medicaid billing for the home‑visiting program; and an anticipated $75,000 decrease in grant revenue. Crummer said interest revenue was budgeted higher after conservative prior estimates, showing a $95,000 increase.
On expenditures, the district built a 3% personnel cost increase into the budget (noted as about $167,000) and budgeted a 10% rise in health‑insurance costs. Capital and facility needs were detailed: an HVAC repair for the Hayden building estimated at $139,000, carpet replacement of roughly $200,000, about $20,000 for Bonners Ferry landscaping and roughly $50,000 for a security system at the Kellogg office. Crummer described the Hayden building as 20 years old and said the district is emphasizing maintenance rather than new construction.
The presentation included a revenue breakdown: 49% contracts and grants, 28% fees, 21% county funding and 2% interest/other. Demographic inputs used in the county share formula were noted: a 2% population increase for Kootenai County and a 1% decrease in taxable valuation. Applying the district's county allocation formula (70% population, 30% taxable market value), Crummer said Kootenai County's FY26 portion would be $1,659,000, down about $19,000 from FY25.
Commissioners asked clarifying questions about facilities and staffing; Kettner said the district has left some positions vacant to stay flexible as funding sources change. There was no formal county action on the budget at the meeting; Panhandle Health officials said the board of health for the five counties will hold a formal budget hearing and vote on May 15, 2025.
During public comment, Ron Hartman raised whether the Panhandle Health budget covers services for undocumented immigrants and asked that any such portion be excluded from the county payment. Kettner and Crummer did not provide a budget breakdown by immigration status during the meeting.
The district's presenters took no formal request for additional county funds at the April 22 meeting; they asked only for questions and said they would continue coordination ahead of the May 15 hearing.
