Island County commissioners will be revisiting their preliminary budget after Budget Director Elaine Marlow presented numbers that paint a bleak future for the county if spending isn’t curbed.

“Our proposed budget might be too aggressive,” commissioner Jill Johnson said. “I would ask the board that we continue this process to work through some of our choices.”

The board will review the budget during work sessions set for Wednesday, Oct. 8 and perhaps Monday, Oct. 13 if necessary, followed by a regular meeting and public hearing on Monday, Oct. 20.

The preliminary budget looked to make significant investments in Information Technology and restore a number of positions that were cut after the recession of 2009.

Marlow said that despite an uptick of sales and permit revenues for the county this year, she displayed for commissioners a graphic showing that the county’s expenses would eventually eat up its reserves over time as the budget currently stands.

The budget garnered little public interest Monday as only Prosecutor Greg Banks gave public comment and those in attendance were mainly department heads.

Given the tough choices the county will continue to have to make moving forward, Banks said the commissioners may want to revisit the idea of a law-and-justice levy.

Banks said if the county is unable to meet their commitments to fund law and justice from their regular budget, “it’s not good news for law and justice or for the rest of the county.”

A law-and-justice levy was approved last year but was afterward removed from the ballot when reserve funding was able to pay for four new sheriff’s deputies.

Two more deputies and security equipment and a security staffer for district court have been funded in this year’s preliminary budget as well. In exchange for dropping the law and justice levy, commissioner committed to funding two deputies a years for the next few years.

Commissioner Helen Price Johnson said that while last year’s investment in law and justice was a “first down payment” on bringing services back to previous levels, the board should carefully make choices moving forward.

“Now we need to look to the future and find a longer term strategy,” Price Johnson said.

Commissioner Aubrey Vaughan voted with Johnson and Price Johnson to delay the budget approval pending additional board discussion.