County uncovers budget mistake

EVERETT – Officials are upset over a $2.9 million budget error found in the county corrections department, but say that Snohomish County’s bottom line is still intact and in the black.

The corrections department, which manages the county jail, overestimated the amount of revenue expected from city contracts, finance director Roger Neumaier said.

The error was made in a spreadsheet formula, he said.

“I’m very concerned about corrections,” Councilman John Koster said. “It’s no small thing.”

“If corrections had forecasted correctly, we’d be sitting with a $3 million surplus,” Councilman Jeff Sax said. “How did it get through without anybody seeing it?” he asked.

Neumaier said the first hint of the error turned up in his review of the corrections budget in June.

“We took it very seriously,” Neumaier said.

However, the error is being covered by higher than expected county revenues, Neumaier said.

Key areas of increase include: sales tax revenue forecast to be $1.4 million more than expected; an additional $750,000 in gambling fees, specifically from Royal Casino; and $300,000 more in investment interest than expected.

“In retrospect, it’s a fortuitous error,” deputy county executive Mark Soine said.

Soine explained that had the unfortunate error been found a year ago, it would have forced $2.9 million in budget cuts and cuts in service.

As it stands, no cuts were needed in any county services as a result of the error, he said.

“I expect we won’t see an error anything like this out of corrections again,” Soine said.

The human error was missed during the budget process, but caught in a quarterly review, county executive Aaron Reardon said.

“Those unfortunate things are going to happen when writing a budget that is so large,” Reardon said. “The controls we have in place to catch these errors worked.”

The county corrections department has a budget of $32.9 million and 346 employees.

Reporter Jeff Switzer: 425-339-3452 or jswitzer@heraldnet.com.