Kittitas County reviews sheriff family budget; staff outline options to address multi-million-dollar general fund shortfall

Kittitas County staff presented the sherifffs office and related public-safety budgets during the boardfs Oct. 13 preliminary budget meeting, detailing personnel, operating and capital requests and identifying options to reduce a multi-million-dollar general fund deficit.

County budget staff said the countyfs "paper deficit is 4.91. With those same reductions, we're looking at $2.085," and outlined mitigation options including reallocating non-staff special revenue and internal service funds, prorated department reductions, and a potential hiring freeze. Staff said vacancy-savings estimates and additional detail would be provided at a subsequent study session.

A material change since earlier presentations, staff said, is that the county's 3-tenths criminal justice fund will provide about $950,000 toward the EOC STAR building project to complete phase 1. Staff noted that is a one-time allocation that does…