County approves new budget

WALLACE –– The Shoshone Board of County Commissioners unanimously approved the proposed budget for 2021-22 fiscal year on Tuesday.

The approved budget of $15,541,272 is $768,286 higher than the 2020/21 budget – an increase the BOCC said was due largely to a combination of wage increases and inflation.

Throughout the past 12 months, the BOCC has met with the various other Shoshone County officials and department heads to retool and develop a brand new pay matrix for each of them. According to Commissioners John Hansen and Jay Huber, after being unable to offer promised raises in 2020, the decision was made to budget for 4% raises across the board to make up for it.

With salary increases being part of the budget and the benefits offered by the county being salary-level dependent, they represent a significant amount of the small increased budget amount.

While minimal increases across the board do still add up, this year’s budget was $25,000 less that the previous years’ increase, which had a lot to do with several technological upgrades that happened throughout the county’s many departments.

To determine the proposed budget, the BOCC meets with every county department to determine their fiscal needs for the coming year, which includes that department filling out a request form for items like wages, supplies, equipment, etc., that are all specific to that department.

The BOCC reviews each departmental submission, discusses it with the department, and then sends it to Shoshone County Clerk Tamie Lewis-Eberhard for another set of eyes to review it. If she gives her two cents, it then either gets approved for the final proposed budget by the BOCC or they sit down with that department again to determine any changes that need to be made.

This year will also be the first year that Shoshone County won’t be levying for ambulance or emergency medical services, which in 2019-20 cost the county $126,000 while it was still contracting with the Shoshone County EMS Corporation. Last year cost the county $231,000 as they propped up the new Shoshone County Ambulance Service District and helped them get all of their policies in place and pay for the necessary licensing and required permits for operation.

Beginning in 2022 SCASD will be levying funds themselves as an entity separate from the county’s budget.

The aforementioned 4% raise was to make up for only being able to offer a 1.5% raise the year before when 3% had been promised.

However in the now-approved budget, the BOCC ensured that there was flexibility as they install and implement their new department-specific pay matrixes.

“Our new pay matrix brought everybody close to what is considered an acceptable wage,” Hansen said. “This is compared to what they were at before when everyone who worked for the county was on the same pay matrix.”

This meant that employees like deputies at the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office were on the same pay matrix as the guys on the county roads crew who were on the same pay matrix as the clerks and secretaries who work in the courthouse.

“We don’t mean any disrespect to our wonderful clerks, but we thought that the guys being shot at might deserve to be on a different pay scale than the people who aren’t,” Huber said.

Hansen further explained that the BOCC made each elected official responsible for their own pay matrix, as they know what is necessary for the job as well as what the industry standard for those positions are.

“They know what people should be or need to be making in order to keep them here,” Hansen said. “It offers our people longevity that used to not exist. Prior to the new matrix, everything was capped at 25 years.”

According to Huber, there had been some county employees who began their careers there right out of high school and retired after 40-plus years of service.

This means those employees who were at least 58 years old hadn’t received a meaningful advancement or raise since they were 43.