{"id":2271262,"date":"2024-06-19T08:33:02","date_gmt":"2024-06-19T12:33:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/spokane-county-to-eliminate-all-vacant-positions-identify-additional-budget-cuts\/"},"modified":"2024-06-19T08:39:12","modified_gmt":"2024-06-19T12:39:12","slug":"spokane-county-to-eliminate-all-vacant-positions-identify-additional-budget-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/spokane-county-to-eliminate-all-vacant-positions-identify-additional-budget-cuts\/","title":{"rendered":"Spokane County will cut all vacant jobs and further reduce its budget"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fspokane-county-to-eliminate-all-vacant-positions-identify-additional-budget-cuts%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2271262&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Spokane County is facing fiscal challenges that will impact its 2025 budget, specifically due to\u2064 an inability of tax revenues to keep up with \u2062rising expenditures. \u200dGiven this situation, county leaders \u200chave decided to take measures to address this imbalance, which\u200c include eliminating all currently vacant positions and possibly \u200cmaking further cuts across all departments. This\u2063 decision was communicated in a\u200c letter\u2062 from the Board of County Commissioners \u200dto\u2063 the \u2064heads of\u200d various\u2064 departments \u2064and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/is-the-democrats-election-heist-too-big-to-fail\/\" title=\"Is the Democrats\u2019 Election Heist \u2018Too Big to Fail\u2019?\">elected officials<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The commissioners have\u2062 outlined three main priorities for managing the county&#8217;s finances: ensuring the safety \u200bof residents and businesses, providing services efficiently,\u200d and maintaining long-term sustainability. They noted the constraints imposed by state law, which caps <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/new-jersey-the-state-with-the-highest-real-estate-property-taxes-in-2022\/\" title=\"New Jersey the State With the Highest Real Estate Property Taxes in 2022\">property tax rate<\/a>\u200d increases at 1% \u200dper\u200c year, making it challenging to generate \u200badequate \u2063revenue. \u200bDespite\u200d projections\u200b for an increase in \u200b<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lets-back-the-blue-texas-house-passes-bill-cracking-down-on-cities-that-defund-police\/\" title=\"BREAKING: Texas House Passes Bill Cracking Down On Cities That Defund Police\">sales tax revenue<\/a>, current figures have fallen short of expectations.<\/p>\n<p>These fiscal\u2063 challenges are compounded by rising \u2062staffing costs, inflation, and the necessity of maintaining adequate financial\u200b reserves. The initial 2025\u2064 General Fund budget \u2063will reflect these constraints by not funding any vacant positions as of June 17, 2024, as part of the county&#8217;s strategy\u2063 to stabilize its financial \u2062situation. The budget process is scheduled to conclude in December.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>(The Center Square) \u2013 Spokane County is anticipating tax revenue shortfalls into next year, which county officials say will require eliminating all currently vacant positions and identifying other cuts countywide.<\/p>\n<p>The Board of County Commissioners made its intention to cut the positions and other items clear after sending a letter to each department head and elected officials earlier today. The move comes as the county enters its 2025 budget process, which will wrap up in December.<\/p>\n<p>The commissioners cited three priorities they plan to reflect throughout the process:<\/p>\n<p>The safety of Spokane County residents and businesses<\/p>\n<p>Efficiently providing services throughout the county<\/p>\n<p>Long-term sustainability<\/p>\n<p>However, tax revenues are failing to keep pace with the county\u2019s growing general fund costs, leading to an expanding structural imbalance in addition to inflation and other pressures, such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/during-covid-19-lockdowns-public-school-teachers-lost-jobs-while-administrators-gained-jobs\/\" title=\"During COVID-19 Lockdowns, Public School Teachers Lost Jobs While Administrators Gained Jobs\">salary increases<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Spokane County is limited by state law on how much it can increase its property tax rate, with the maximum hike set at 1% annually. Still, the commissioners noted that they expected an overall increase in sales tax revenue.<\/p>\n<p>While the county budgeted a 2% year-over-year increase in sales tax revenue for 2024, it\u2019s only at 0.9% right now, less than half of what its budget office anticipated. On top of that, the county does not expect new growth in the 2025 sales tax budget, according to the letter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cContinuing to operate exactly as we do today is not possible. Increased staffing costs, inflation, and the need to maintain appropriate reserves all add to the cost of doing business,\u201d the commissioners wrote in the letter. \u201c\u2026 With that in mind, please note that the 2025 initial General Fund budget will load all authorized FTEs that exist as of June 17, 2024; however, all vacant FTEs will be unfunded.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Board of County Commissioners provided an option to request a reallocation of funding for any positions removed but did not elaborate on whether it would accept every appeal. The letter also failed to estimate how many positions were cut and how much that would save the county.<\/p>\n<p>The Center Square reached out to Randy Bischoff, Spokane County\u2019s senior director of Finance &#038; Administration, who said the county would have more data on those positions and the corresponding savings next week. However, he did not clarify if the county anticipated a deficit.<\/p>\n<p>Rather, Bischoff said the goal is to obtain a balanced budget by eliminating vacant positions and controlling expenses.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to cutting all vacant positions as of yesterday, the commissioners asked each department to identify and propose a list of cuts as they prepare their budget priorities. The county asked for all identified capital requests through 2030 as part of those priorities as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are encouraging departments and offices to identify new approaches to delivering services that may lower costs through improved efficiency,\u201d the commissioners wrote.<\/p>\n<p>According to the letter, other cuts could include enforcing a one-device policy and eliminating discretionary spending on travel, training, conferences and general supplies.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The deadline to submit the 2025 budget entries and identified requests for the six-year Capital Improvement plan is Aug. 2. The county will begin entering those submitted ahead of time starting next week.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter receiving submitted budgets from County departments, Budget Office staff will compile the information to share a preliminary budget with the Board of County Commissioners and County departments the first week of September,\u201d the commissioners wrote.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Spokane County anticipates tax revenue shortfalls extending into next year, prompting officials to eliminate all vacant positions and make additional countywide cuts. The Board of County Commissioners communicated these intentions through a letter sent to each department head, emphasizing the need for budget reductions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2271263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/iStock-1309949931-1024x683.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2271262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/iStock-1309949931-1024x683.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2271262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2271262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2271262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2271263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2271262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2271262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2271262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}