YAKIMA, Wash. – Yakima County is facing a $15 million budget shortfall for the upcoming year. In response, the Yakima County Board of Commissioners is implementing fiscal accountability measures to address the issue early.
Commissioner LaDon Linde emphasized the importance of taking proactive steps in January to mitigate future challenges. He explained that the board’s message to other elected officials and department heads is about collaboration.
“This was a message to our other electeds and department heads to say, let’s work together to solve this problem,” said Linde.
In light of the budget constraints, the commissioners have decided to freeze all currently vacant county positions. Linde noted they will evaluate each vacancy individually to determine its necessity.
“We’ll take a look at each one of those vacant positions on a case-by-case basis and go, ‘okay, how critical is this position?’ Our intent is to be wise about our hiring practices right now and make sure that we’re only hiring those positions that are absolutely critical to the mission that we have to perform as a county government,” said Linde.
Linde pointed out that part of the financial issue can be traced back to compensation challenges faced by the county in recent years.
“We had to figure out how to make more attractive compensation packages because we are finding that we are falling behind in being able to recruit and retain key positions in the county. So we had to make some changes in some of our collective bargaining agreements, make us more competitive,” said Linde.
A new state legislature bill reforming liability premium could also alleviate some financial strain on the county. Linde highlighted the significant increase in liability costs over recent years. The increase in liability costs is attributed to factors such as the state’s joint liability law, large jury awards and claims history. Linde emphasized the need for a long-term financial plan to avoid recurring problems in future years.
“That’s a big concern of ours. Since 2021, we’ve seen our overall liability costs go from 3.5 million to 9.2 million. So that’s nearly $6 million over the course of five years, where we’re paying that into insurance premiums. So, we can’t use that to build roads. We can’t use that to hire attorneys or sheriff’s deputies, or anybody else to provide service for the county,” said Linde.
The commissioners are committed to setting up a sustainable financial strategy for Yakima County to ensure stability beyond 2027.
