Ada County department heads heard a pep talk of sorts last week as county commissioners and county clerk Trent Tripple previewed the annual budgeting process.
The county is projecting revenue to stay flat, and is asking managers to propose budgets using the same allocations as the current year - even if that were to include new positions or special salary increases for workers.
But Tripple said they also want to give all county employees up to a 4% cost-of-living raise, which would include some merit-based growth. That would cost about $6.2 million next year.
“The last three years, we've increased salaries on average 17%, and we have not taken an additional tax dollar to do that,” Tripple said during a meeting with department heads Friday.
He called it "magnificent budgeting," but said the county is at the point where there isn’t much more funding left to boost pay or budgets without cuts elsewhere or tax increases. Only about half the funding needed to grant the 4% raises has been identified now that the county’s fund balance and excess cash amounts - used in recent years to boost wages - have declined to what Tripple said are "normal" levels.
“That extra revenue demand will be hard and there will be some difficult discussions,” he said.
Departments that want to grow beyond their current allocation will be able to make a case for that growth, but requests will require significant detail and anything leading to a tax increase would be a "tough ask."
Commissioner Ryan Davidson encouraged budget writers to follow the example being set by Elon Musk, who was tapped as an advisor to President Donald Trump to lead the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
“We're not going to find as much as DOGE has, and that's a good thing because we have been keeping an eye on it, and our department chairs have been keeping an eye on it,” Davidson said. “But it's just a good omen to me that our country's going through maybe the first ever real audit of government programs that we've had in my lifetime.”
Most federal agencies have historically made all budget and spending information public. The State of Idaho and Ada County share budget and spending information with the public as well.
Commission Chair Rod Beck echoed that sentiment, telling department heads to “examine what you actually do and see if there's any area that is not statutorily required. If there's things that you can figure out, we don't need to do that just because we've always done it. And that would be a good way to streamline our government and keep our efficiency and our productivity high.”
Ada County’s internal budgeting process goes through the spring, with public hearings on the proposed spending plan for next fiscal year scheduled for June.
