Jill Schramm/MDN Ward County Commissioners John Fjeldahl, Jason Olson and Howard “Bucky” Anderson, from left, look over documents and listen to a consultant’s presentation in assessing ways to save money on employee health insurance during budget discussions Tuesday.

Ward County commissioners began cutting a draft 2025 budget Tuesday that proposed increasing the property tax levy by about $5.3 million.

Amounting to about a $128 increase on a $200,000 home, the estimated levy had commissioners trimming a variety of budget areas to bring down the spending, including reducing the mill levy for roads.

Originally submitted at about a 16-mill increase, budget adjustments made following a review by the auditor’s office before Tuesday’s meeting resulted in the commission working on a document with a 14.2-mill increase.

Commissioners’ cuts reduced that increase by more than half. They will review the recalculated budget next Tuesday, when they could make more cuts ahead of an Aug. 9 deadline to approve a preliminary budget.

One change affecting the budget is the loss of $7 million in property valuation due to an oil company idling down and removing property from the utilities assessment, Auditor/Treasurer Marisa Haman said.

Another major factor is less cash carryover than typical.

Haman said the big shift occurred with the jail becoming fully staffed. The jail has had high turnover and was down nine personnel last year. The ability to hire has added staff into the budget and raised costs.

The jail requested $275,763 for three additional staff in 2025 and $91,277 for one additional employee in juvenile detention. The commission cut the juvenile detention position and two of the requested jail staff.

One of the jail positions is a Medication Opioid Use Disorder position, which ties in with plans for spending opioid lawsuit settlement funds to address addiction among inmates. The commission considered the potential to use settlement money to help fund the position. That remains a possibility as the City of Minot and Ward County continue to develop a joint plan for settlement dollars, but the commission’s action also left open the possibility of a fully tax-funded jail position if the settlement money isn’t available.

Jail Commander Paul Olthoff said he has requested the additional staff for a couple of years because the recommended staff level is 52-56 employees and the jail has been operating with 51 employees.

He said the jail is staffed for a jail population of 150 inmates. The population was 140 on Tuesday.

“When we get up to 200 (beds), then we don’t have enough staff, like we did a few months ago. When we’re at 200, there’s not enough people to run it,” he said. “This year our average daily population is still around 168.”

The commission discussed the acceptance of outside inmates. The county charges $75 a day for inmates from Ward County cities and $90 a day for other counties and federal inmates.

Olthoff said the jail estimates its cost at $100 a day to house an inmate. He noted small changes in numbers have little effect on certain expenses, such as utilities, and he considers having that outside income to be important to the jail’s operation.

“I bet you our cost per day, if we stopped taking people, it would go up severely for just housing our own inmates,” he said. “I think taking more people brings that cost down.”

Commissioner Shelly Weppler opposed cutting two of the three requested jail positions due to increasing requirements that jails must meet. She preferred to cut just one, knowing that one of the two could be eligible for opioid settlement dollars.

The sheriff’s department also submitted salary adjustments of about $177,733 for certain positions in the department, which would be in addition to the 2.5% step increases and 3.5% cost of living increases in the budget.

“I’m not taking real joy in this, but I think that we need to cut out the salary adjustments,” Commissioner Jason Olson said. “Mostly because it’s a tough budget year.”

He said he didn’t deny there is need there but there also may be need with certain other county personnel for whom the pay plan isn’t keeping up with the job market competition.

“I think it is a relevant question. I just don’t think we’re going to have the money to be able to fund it this year,” Olson said.

The commission postponed acting on the proposed step and cost of living increases until seeing the revised budget figures next week.