Cass County, N.D. – The Cass County Sheriff’s Office has been told balancing the county budget will require a hiring freeze and withdrawing at least one request for an additional deputy.
Cass County Sheriff Jesse Jahner shared the news with The Flag on Friday after leaving one a series of county budget hearings that were held this week.
“It is what it is,” said Jahner. “It’s something we’re just going to try to work through.”
Jahner said the hiring freeze for his office would last “for a few years” and cited the state legislature’s capping of annual property taxes at 3% at the local level as the main reason.
“The counties don’t have a lot of possibilities to bring in extra revenue,” said Jahner. “It’s going to very hard going here over the next several years.”
Listen: Cass County Sheriff Jesse Jahner on The Flag
Unlike other police departments in Fargo and West Fargo which can supplement their budgets with sales taxes, Jahner says the county’s options are limited.
The county sheriff’s office expenses comprise almost 60% of the county budget.
“They [cities] have opportunities to raise fees on water and garbage collection,” said Jahner. “The county has no way to do any of that stuff. The county is in trouble.”
Jahner also said the state did not address exploring other revenue streams for all counties after approving the property tax levy cap.
“I think that this is more of a legislative and state issue and responsibility because of the cap, and there’s no other ideas at the state level to supplement counties,” said Jahner.
But the sheriff sounded optimistic that some sort of solution could be reached.
“Our commissioners are great as they try to figure out this tax cap,” said Jahner. “We’re trying to figure it out and working together with them.”
