The Burleigh County Commission took its first whack at the 2008 budget Wednesday, with expectations of adopting a preliminary budget at its first meeting in September.

A countywide mill has increased in value from $195,000 to $219,250, according to auditor-treasurer Kevin Glatt. This reflects a 12 percent increase, making 1 mill worth $24,250 more than last year. New construction accounted for 31 percent of the increase.

Last year, the county levied 63 mills on property taxes and would reduce that to about 59 mills to meet the current budget, depending on what commissioners decide to do with employee salaries in 2008.

"The various county budgets, as submitted, reflect a 1.4 percent increase in spending, or an increase of about $159,000," Glatt said. "This excludes proposed salary increases."

New Human Resources Director Renee Gall is recommending 3 percent cost of living salary increases and 2 percent performance increases. County employees could receive as much as a 5 percent raise.

Gall is requesting $35,000 for a study of county salaries, updating the last study that took place in 2003.

Some of the budget highlights, according to Glatt, include increasing the mills for county parks from .69 to 3; $110,000 for technology; $30,000 for GIS (Graphic Information System); $130,000 increase in the election budget; and requests for six new employees, five from Sheriff Pat Heinert and one from the roads department.

Heinert wants three new deputies and two detention center personnel added to his budget.

In the sheriff's department, one deputy will be added to the transport division, one to the narcotics task force and the third will be in a newly created school resource officer position.

The sheriff said that there is only one narcotics officer on staff at present, and he worries about burnout and the amount of overtime that is put in.

"A school resource officer is becoming one of the best proactive positions in law enforcement," Heinert said. "Law enforcement is typically reactionary. The school resource office is one of the few that is proactive as they go out and deal with people, trying to stop incidents before they happen."

The school resource officer would spend 10 months working with the county schools and, during the summer, be used to help in the patrol division.

It was noted that while no meth labs were taken down this past year, arrests are not down and there have been more dosage seizures.

"The trafficking is still there, it's being brought into the state," Heinert said. "We still have a huge meth issue."

In the detention center, one person will be used in a clerical position and the other to create a filing system and inmate tracking.

Center Inc., a private, nonprofit organization that provides alternative sentencing options for the South Central Court District, wants to continue to receive $2,000 from the county, said representative Nancy Keating. This also is in the sheriff's budget.

Bismarck-Mandan Transit's director Robin Werre requested $25,000 for replacement of a paratransit bus. This met with some resistance, but commissioners did approve putting it in the preliminary budget.

Social Services saw a decrease in its budget request of more than $500,000, some of which came from moving responsibility of child support services from the county to the state. This year the Social Services budget was just shy of $5 million, next years has been put at $4.45 million.

The commission approved all the department budgets as submitted. Plans are to adopt the preliminary budget in September, at which point the commission cannot add to the budget, only cut.

(Reach reporter Gordon Weixel at 250-8255 or gordon.weixel@;bismarcktribune.com.)