(The Center Square) – Spokane County is restructuring its behavioral health unit as budget cuts at the state level trickle down and competing jurisdictions snatch up co-responder grant funding.
The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office has gone after these grants for years, receiving about $1.7 million every biennium, but not anymore. Undersheriff Kevin Richey warned Tuesday that SCSO may only receive $620,000 through June 2027, potentially reducing the agency’s patrol capacity.
The Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs received 14 applications for over $17 million in funding this year, so it had to pick and choose who got what. Especially since the state just balanced a $16 billion budget gap, according to Gov. Bob Ferguson and Democrats in the Legislature, reducing the grant availability as more agencies came after it.
With only $7 million from the state, down from $10 million from 2023 to 2025, and $6.17 million after the cost of WASPC administering the program, several agencies may miss out on the Mental Health Field Response Teams Program.
“It’s a pretty big cut,” Richey told the Board of County Commissioners. “Our goal is to continue the program, obviously, but we need funding for the deputies. One of the things WASPC said is they didn’t want to fund law enforcement — they only wanted to fund the co-responders.”
According to a letter from WASPC, the association “expects” to award SCSO grant funding but requested a revised budget focused on funding clinicians by June 13. However, with limited means available as eligibility expands significantly, the typical county’s BHU may face reductions.
Richey said SCSO could afford to fund two co-responders each year with the grants and added that Spokane Valley, which contracts SCSO for law enforcement, would pay for a third. He said that a single deputy would respond with them, covering part of downtown in the city of Spokane, the Valley, unincorporated parts of the county and other smaller jurisdictions.
SCSO originally requested funding for six co-responders between the Valley and the county.
“To be clear, we’re not asking you to increase funding,” Sheriff John Nowels told the board. “I know you’re not in a position to do it. My intent is I will be taking a body out of patrol, so we will be reducing one [full-time equivalent] in the sheriff’s office because it is no longer grant-funded.”
The county is currently trying to balance a $20 million deficit ahead of next year, so the board is asking almost everyone to take cuts. Funding another deputy is out of the question, so Nowels wants someone locked in that position with the proper training instead of rotating deputies out.
The county and Valley typically go after the BHU funding with the Spokane Police Department, but Nowels is making changes. He said the county’s BHU personnel were spending about 70% of their time responding within the city of Spokane, and he “just couldn’t justify it anymore.”
Richey said the agencies received around $3 million combined for each biennium in the past, with about $1.7 million of that intended for the county.
“Nobody likes the idea that we’re getting funding cut from just about everywhere right now, but that’s just the reality of it,” he said. “Just know, unincorporated Spokane County will be paying for it by reducing FTEs and pulling them off patrol.”
