Benton County poised to approve budget

By Drew Foster, Herald staff writer

PROSSER -- At least four positions -- three currently vacant -- are casualties of Benton County's pared-down budget, which could be approved Monday.

A part-time clerk will be laid off as part of Benton County District Court's effort to trim 2 percent from its budget. District Court Administrator Jacki Lahtinen said that will save the court $27,645 annually but also increase workloads for others in the department as the clerk's duties are redistributed.

Lahtinen said she would like to resurrect the position if extra dollars can be found in the future.

Benton County commissioners asked nearly every department head to slash 2 percent from their budgets to balance the 2010 budget.

District Court also cut $75,000 in judge pro tem funding, which brought its total budget cuts to about 4.4 percent.

Superior Court was set to take a nearly 8.2 percent cut after commissioners asked court administrators to cut the CASA program. But after revisions moved the county's budget from $1.6 million in the red to more than $350,000 in the black, the commissioners gave $142,000 to Superior Court.

The CASA program, which uses third-party volunteers to determine which parent gets majority custody of a child during certain divorce hearings, should continue with that $142,000 contribution.

The commissioners will hold a public hearing on the 2010 budget during their 9 a.m. Monday meeting in Prosser and then vote on adopting the budget.

While the District Court clerk is the only person who will be laid off, several unfilled positions will be modified or eliminated. The Benton County Sheriff's Office is axing two unfilled correction officer positions and the assessor's office will switch an unfilled full-time position to part-time.

Sheriff Larry Taylor said the reduction in corrections staff won't affect jail operations, including ability to house out-of-county offenders, which generates about $5.5 million annually. "Obviously, it's just going to increase (the) workload for the remaining people," he said.

The sheriff's office also is holding off on purchasing four vehicles, three for detectives and one for administration. That will save the county $134,000. The office is, however, purchasing seven new patrol vehicles.

Overall, $420,000 is being cut from the sheriff's budget.

Budget cuts will not affect the county's newly established animal control fund, which totals $155,232. Taylor said the animal control facility, which should be operating by early summer, will employ two people full time.

Many county offices that didn't cut positions trimmed their budgets by reducing travel and training expenses. The commissioners' travel spending was reduced by $10,000 to $7,500 and their training budget was halved from $4,000 to $2,000.

Eric Hsu, Benton-Franklin Counties Office of Public Defense indigent defense coordinator, said the department is looking into internet-based seminars to cope with the reduced travel budget.

-- Drew Foster: 585-7207; dfoster@tricityherald.com

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Sunday, Nov. 22, 2009

Benton County poised to approve budget

By Drew Foster, Herald staff writer