Public Safety in Gem County, And How We Fix The Budget

Earlier this week I sat down with Sheriff Donnie Wunder to talk about what’s really going on inside the Gem County Sheriff’s Office.

And I’ll tell you straight, it wasn’t complicated.

Our deputies are doing a lot with very little.

Right now, Gem County is struggling to keep positions filled. Not because people don’t want to do the job, but because the pay just doesn’t make sense compared to what’s right next door.

We’re sitting around $39,000 a year for a starting deputy. Meanwhile, Ada County is starting closer to $65,000, and Canyon County is up in the mid $50,000 range.

That gap matters.

It means we hire good people, we train them, they gain experience, and then they leave.

And the deputies who stay behind are stretched thin trying to cover the gaps.

At some point, that becomes more than a staffing issue. It because a public safety issue.

In a lot of ways, Gem County has become a training ground for other counties.

Now, a lot of people hear this and immediately ask the same questions.

“Why don’t we just raise pay?”

And the answer they usually hear is this.

“We’re limited to about 3% per year.”

But that’s where conversation needs to get clearer.

That 3% number isn’t a hard cap on what we can pay our deputies. It’s tied to how property tax revenue grows year to year. It doesn’t mean we’re stuck. It means we have to be more intentional about how we build our budget.

Because the truth is, there are ways to fix this, without just defaulting to raising taxes.

It starts with priorities.

If public safety is one of the most important responsibilities of county government, and it is, then it needs to be treated that way when we make budget decisions. That means taking a hard look at where money is currently being spent and asking whether it reflects what matters most to the people who live here.

It also means using every tool available to us, not just relying on one funding source. Growth in the county brings in new revenue. There are state and federal opportunities that other counties are using. And there are always areas in any budget where efficiency can be improved if we’re willing to look for it.

But beyond that, this is also about how we structure pay.

If we want people to stay, we can’t just rely on small across the board increases every year and hope it catches up. We need to build a system that rewards experience, creates a path for long term careers, and brings our wages into a competitive range with the counties around us.

That may mean making target adjustments instead of waiting years for incremental raises to close a gap that’s already too wide.

Because right now, we’re not competing.

And if we’re not competing, we’re going to keep losing people.

This isn’t about pointing fingers at the past. It’s about recognizing where we are today and being honest about what needs to change.

WE CAN FIX THIS.

We have the ability to prioritize differently. We have the ability to be more transparent about where money is going. And we have the ability to make decisions that reflect what actually matters to the people of Gem County.

The questions is whether we’re willing to do it.

Because public safety isn’t optional.

And falling behind isn’t acceptable.

-Paul Anderson