The Grays Harbor County commissioners on Wednesday, Nov. 2, continued mulling over the 2017 general fund budget during a special meeting.

Attending the meeting were county budget staff Brenda Sherman and Marilyn Lewis, along with representatives from some departments which are funded through the general fund, including county Coroner Lane Youmans.

“This the worst thing (we have to deal with) — this and personnel (issues),” Commissioner and Chairwoman Vickie Raines said of the budget.

The biggest takeaways from the budget meeting were proposed increases to the general fund from property taxes and building permit revenues.

Sherman said the commissioners could expected increased property tax revenue by some $162,000, and building permit revenue could be increased by about $53,000.

While Sherman suggested increasing beginning to cash to $5.5 million, Raines noted that the county still had not received billing from the county’s equipment repair and rental fund (ER&R). ER&R provides rental vehicles and makes repairs to county equipment and generates funding by billing other departments throughout the county. With ER&R billing outstanding, the beginning cash could suffer when the bills come in. In October, Sherman had warned that some $236,000 in ER&R billing had not been submitted to county departments.

“We need to keep that in the forefront because we could take a hit in that $5.5 million amount,” Raines said.

The county department of Health and Social Services has requested $498,000 from the 2017 general fund budget.

This year, the county transitioned its services into a regional behavioral health organization (BHO) called Great Rivers BHO.

Commissioner Wes Cormier asked if the transition to the BHO had helped alleviate some budget needs.

“Do they need the same amount of resources from us as they did in the past?” Cormier asked.

“I think so because part of what we have when we pay BHO is through our mental health funding,” Raines explained. Raines is the Grays Harbor County representative to the BHO.

The commissioners plan to present individual budget proposals on Nov. 17. Both Cormier and Commissioner Frank Gordon said their budgets would be ready.

“I’m not as confident,” Raines said.

Even with the the individual proposals on Nov. 17, the county doesn’t expect to have a clear picture of what the 2017 general fund budget will look like.

“We’d like to do a lot, and we’re trying to always do more with less… Hopefully we’ll have some generalized numbers by Nov. 17,” Raines said.

“On Nov. 17 we’ll each have our proposed budgets, and we might splice each others up a little bit,” Cormier said.

A budget adoption hearing is planned for Dec. 5.