Photos of Commissioners Ernie Moser, Jeff Hough and Ken Bullock (from left to right) on display in the Bannock County Commissioner Chambers. | Logan Ramsey, EastIdahoNews.com POCATELLO – Eight nonprofit agencies would suffer cuts of varying severity if the county commissioners go through with their proposed budget for the next fiscal year. After hearing presentations from a variety of nonprofit organizations, the Bannock County Commissioners have proposed a budget for fiscal year 2026 that would reduce charitable contributions from the county. The proposed budget makes cuts of varying amounts, with one organization seeing its contribution cut entirely. That organization is Aid for Friends, the only emergency homeless shelter in Bannock County. Michele Poletti, executive director, said that if the shelter saw its entire county financial contribution cut, it would have to reduce the number of people it could shelter. “There would be a lot more homeless on the streets trying to find places to stay, which is going to add to your enforcement issues, and hospitals and crisis centers,” Poletti said. “It has an impact. There’s like this trickle effect when we’re not able to serve those that are homeless or in need of a place to stay.” While the commissioners denied EastIdahoNews.com’s request for an interview, Commissioner Jeff Hough, chair of the board, provided a written statement. Bannock County Spokeswoman Emma Iannacone provided answers to clarification questions. “We truly appreciate the community’s engagement with the proposed budget and all the input we’ve received so far,” Hough stated. “I’ve had some really good conversations about the budget and am taking it under advisement as we move forward. We’re looking forward to hearing more at Tuesday’s public hearing and continuing to work toward the best outcomes for Bannock County.” What agencies would see contribution cuts? The Bannock County Courthouse | EastIdahoNews.com file photo In total, the amount of funds freed up by cutting contributions to nonprofit organizations total $131,500. The reason for these cuts stated by Commissioner Moser is to find the funding for raises to county employees. “I’m looking at what we need to gain to get the wages to our employees,” said Commissioner Ernie Moser in a July 28 budget meeting where the commissioners set which organizations would receive funding cuts and how much those cuts would be. The commissioners would also see raises under their proposed budget, going from $82,934 in FY25 to $90,000 in FY26. This is an increase of $7,066 for each commissioner and $21,198 between the three of them. A chart showing what agencies received in 2025, versus what the commissioners have proposed. | Bannock County At the budget meeting, Moser emphasized the importance of finding funds for county employees at the start of the meeting. “I think that this year we’re at a point where we’re not able to give a (cost of living adjustments) to our employees. So why are we giving to everybody else?” Moser said. Iannacone emailed EastIdahoNews.com an explanation of how the raises for elected officials and county employees were determined. “There is a Compensation Committee that identifies personnel whose salaries are below market level. This year, the committee recommended annual “step” increases for employees below market level, which, when combined with benefit changes and operating increases, amounted to the full 3% budget increase plus new construction allowed by Idaho Code. The increase in middle management and elected official salaries came from operational budgetary reductions,” Iannacone said. People who want to view the wage increases for county employees, as well as the rest of the budget, can in this document provided by the county. Bannock County Clerk Jason Dixon told the commissioners that they give far more in charitable contributions, based on the “passing conversations” he had with officials from other counties. “Where we might pay $20,000 for some great cause, and that’s the thing is, we all agree that they are great causes … other counties will pay $1,000 or $2,500 and so we are really, really at a higher level than most counties are,” Dixon said. “It’s kind of a hard pill for us to swallow both ways, because they’re all good entities, and they’re all doing wonderful work in the community, but … we’re talking about half a million dollars in tax dollars to mostly private entities.” EastIdahoNews.com spoke with two agencies that would see their contributions cut under the proposed budget. Bannock County Historical Society The Bannock County Historical Complex, the museum operated by the Bannock County Historical Society | EastIdahoNews.com file photo The way Tom Eisenhauer, treasurer of the historical society, sees it, the proposed reduction to their organization could potentially render the museum “no longer viable.” What the commissioners have proposed for the historical society is a 19.4% reduction in contributions out of its total budget, which is around $118,000. This comes out to a 15.3% reduction in the organization’s total budget. From his perspective, building a budget that accounts for the proposed reduction is not workable. “I can squeeze out another $5,000 or so. I can squeeze out a little bit of money … but I can’t squeeze out (this) reduction. I can’t put together a business plan to, to honestly say that we can function as we have in the past,” Eisenhauer said. The majority of the society’s funding, around 75%, goes towards salaries for its personnel, with the rest going towards overhead for the museum. And Eisenhauer said that these employees don’t receive benefits in addition to their salaries. The way he sees it, the society could cut only out about a tenth of its already cheap overhead. To fully account for the reduction, Eisenhauer said that the museum would have to reduce its already limited staff, as well as reduce services. “We functionally become a visitor center,” Eisenhauer said. The way Eisenhauer sees it, the value the Bannock County Historical Society provides to the county is not quantifiable in terms of revenue generation. “If I try to put it into dollars, I can be as frugal and I can be and I can try to generate as much attendance as possible, but the reason for that museum is something that you cannot quantify,” Eisenhauer said. The museum brings in around 3,500 people in a year, not counting the students who attend for a field trip to learn about the history of their home. Half of the attendance numbers are people from out of state, who Eisenhauer calls “history nerds.” “The trickle down effect of those people coming to Pocatello for a day, I can’t quantify for you,” Eisenhauer said. “But I can tell you that their perception of Pocatello and wanting to come back here or their feeling about our town and our community is positive because of that museum,” Eisenhauer said. Aid For Friends The administration building of Aid For Friends | EastIdahoNews.com file photo The $30,000 that the commissioners have proposed to cut to Aid For Friends is around a quarter of its budget. In the budget meeting, Hough and Commissioner Ken Bullock expressed a belief that Aid For Friends did more to serve people who are living outside of the county than people in it. “It doesn’t necessarily serve the whole county. It’s more, Aid for friends, for the homeless-” Hough started. “And the transients,” Bullock added. “And the transients here in Pocatello,” Hough finished. “I follow your logic of county dollars to county residents, and a lot of them are here today, gone next week,” Bullock said. Poletti addressed this inaccuracy for EastIdahoNews.com. “We do have a few that come through our community that don’t stay, but the majority of them do stay within our community or are part of our community before they get services through our office or stay at our shelter,” Poletti said. Poletti explained said that there were 393 residents that stayed at the shelter in 2024, and less than 5% of those people were from outside Bannock County. “We’re seeing a lot more families coming through and staying at the shelter,” Poletti explained. Poletti has expressed some optimism that cuts won’t be as severe, stating that she has since given Bullock a tour of the emergency shelter. She has also heard through colleagues that they met with the other commissioners and felt that those meeting were positive. “I felt that the meeting with Commissioner (Bullock) went extremely (well),” Poletti said. She later continued, “They could (not) guarantee how much funding they could provide to us, but it was more positive than (it was) previously.” When will an official decision be made? There will be a public hearing in the Bannock County Commissioner Chambers on Tuesday, starting at 11 a.m. with a sign up sheet for those who want to speak on the proposed budget. Speakers will have around 2 to 3 minutes to share their perspective with the commissioners. Before the hearing, the commissioners will meet at 9 a.m. for their regular meeting, where they may be discussing the proposed budget. Following the hearing, the commissioners will have the option to call for an official vote, or they could save it for a following meeting. Iannacone emphasized that the county commissioners had not made any final decisions yet.The post Commissioners propose charitable contribution cuts, affecting homeless shelter, historical society and more appeared first on East Idaho News.
Source: eastidahonews.com
Commissioners propose charitable contribution cuts, affecting homeless shelter, historical society and more
