Commissioners pass $81 million budget for FY ’27

By Soncirey Mitchell
Reader Staff

Amid rising global prices, the Bonner County Board of Commissioners has spent the past several months working with county department heads to tighten the purse strings while crafting the Fiscal Year 2027 budget. The commissioners passed the $81,428,836 budget on Aug. 31 in a 2-1 vote, with Commissioner Asia Williams dissenting due to disagreements over employee salaries.

“The commissioners all expressed a desire to have everybody detail what every line item was for,” said Bonner County Clerk Mike Rosedale at the budget adoption hearing. “If you have a travel budget, be as detailed as possible about where you’re going, how often, conference budgets, the registration fees, airlines…”

According to Rosedale, the county has “drilled down” the budget “as tightly as possible,” making for a lean allowance with little “wiggle room” in terms of unexpected expenses. The decision came in response, in part, to anticipated reductions in state revenue and rising gas prices.

“Fuel has gone up, [and] will continue to go up, and the commissioners basically asked all … the departments that have been fuel dependent to increase that by 20%,” said Rosedale.

The county will levy $38,453,667 in property taxes for FY ’27, of which $527,075 comes from new construction within its borders. The Clerk’s Office also estimates the county will bring in $2.9 million in grants and $29,377,144 from additional funding sources, such as application and user fees.

The budget is divided into various funds and departments, the largest of which is the Justice Fund, which accounts for $24,768,424. This covers expenses for the Prosecutor’s and Sheriff’s offices, as well as civil litigation and juvenile detention, among other resources. The Road and Bridge Department has the second highest budget at $13,495,493, followed by the General Fund at $12,362,585.

“I want the public to understand that all the county offices and departments were asked to come forward with proposed budgets that were net-zero or with potential reductions, and we know that’s a hard ask,” said Commissioner Brian Domke. “Most of the offices and departments were able to bring forward net-reduction proposals. …

“Please understand that the increase in the cost of goods and services that the county is receiving proposals for — whether it’s contract renewals, bids, things of that nature — in my estimation have ranged from anywhere from 5% to over 20% in most cases,” he added. “And yet we’re trying to work [to keep] each of our costs on our 3% increase, so that’s a significant challenge.”

Across all departments, employee salaries and benefits account for 54% of all budget expenses; a reduction of 2% from FY ’26. However, the commissioners still budgeted for step increases — scheduled raises — for all employees hired prior to May 1, 2026. 

“I am a dissenting vote on this budget because I have issues with the compensation,” said Williams, arguing that the county did not have enough time to gauge employee performance or the greater impact of pay increases.

“[I]n a perfect world, I understand what you’re trying to do. … The other thing is, I don’t agree with the idea that everybody gets increases when we’re not reviewing people’s jobs,” she continued. “There are some people that do fantastic jobs, there are some people that do mediocre jobs and there are some people that do less than that.”

Domke disagreed, saying that while additional data is always useful, the commissioners were following a “consistent” process while remaining in budget. Domke and Commissioner Ron Korn subsequently voted 2-1 to pass the budget.

“We can disagree over methodology,” said Domke. “I will quote a saying that I found to be very meaningful and that is that ‘Perfect is the enemy of good enough.’ Sometimes you have to accept ‘good enough’ and move forward or else you can be pursuing perfection and never get past ‘go.’”

FY ’27 will begin Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026 and run until Thursday, Sept. 30, 2027. The Clerk’s Office will publish an almost line-by-line breakdown of each department’s budget for the benefit of the public, which will be available on the county website closer to the start of the fiscal year.

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