Chelan County Sheriff’s Office Facing Stagnating Budget For 2025

Like all of the agencies within Chelan County, the Sheriff's Office does not appear to be in line for an increase to its annual budget for 2025.

As the budgeting process for next year began, the County's Board of Commissioners reportedly asked each of its departments to bring them a figure that was no greater than what was provided to them in 2024.

Sheriff Mike Morrison says the lack of any additional money from the County is sure to make things more challenging in the coming year.

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"We understand that we have to be responsible with tax-payer dollars and we'll try to work with what we get from the commissioners and try to be responsible with the resources we have. But clearly, if you're trying to look at running your operational costs around 2024's figures despite having contractual obligations for pay increases, as well as increases to your motor pool and vehicles, it certainly limits our resources and our ability to perform certain functions. So we'll continue to try and do our best but it may not be that easy in certain aspects."

The budget allocations to the Sheriff's Office in 2024 allowed Morrison to hire three new commissioned deputies, but he says it's unlikely any new personnel will be hired next year.

Although none of his staff is expected to get cut as part of the 2025 budget, Morrison says the continuing loss of personnel at the Sheriff's Office over the past 20 years is an ongoing cause for concern.

"In 2008, we were at sixty-eight commissioned deputies for Chelan County with seventy-thousand citizens at that time. We're now looking at fifty-eight commissioned deputies, that's ten less, yet our population is up to over eighty-thousand and continuing to grow, so that's clearly a reality that's stretching us thinner all the time."

Morrison adds the county's 2,994 square miles are getting much more difficult to patrol, especially considering the number of people who are now using its rural areas for recreational purposes, and the over-five-million tourists who now visit within its borders during an average year.

He says the Sheriff's Office has had to get creative with some of its funding mechanisms in recent years, and has already received over $4 million grants in 2024 to help with a variety of important items and other needs.

County officials say the Sheriff's Office began the week with about $2 million more in asks for its 2025 budget than commissioners will prospectively be able to consider, and that Morrison was scheduled to have a meeting with them about the matter today.