The Grays Harbor County commissioners continue to sharpen their pencils and hone the proposed 2018 general fund budget.

Currently, the 2018 general fund budget seems set to finish the year with an operating deficit of about $553,000.

Every year, each county department is asked to submit a budget request. Department heads use general costs — such as salaries and department operations — to make their budget, while also including requests for upgrades. Those requests help guide the commissioners as they assign appropriations to each department in making the official county general fund budget.

At the beginning of the budget process this year, the total request from departments would have landed the county with an operating deficit of more than $3.7 million.

As of Nov. 21, the commissioners had whittled that down. That whittling, however, includes significant cuts.

Clerk to the board Jenna Amsbury suggested sending the budget out to all of the departments as soon as possible.

“If you guys are going to go with some of these (cuts), they may include layoffs or something,” she warned. “People (department heads) are going to have to do those soon.”

Commissioner Wes Cormier said it is his priority to pass a balanced budget for 2018.

“I would like to, at the very least, propose a balanced budget,” he said.

Departments don’t always spend all of their appropriated revenue. Cormier is hoping that holds true in 2018.

“Just looking at past budgets, I know we haven’t spent more than 97 percent of our projected budget, so I think we’ll see that. I can live with that,” he said. “In the end, it will be balanced as long as we stick to it.”

Commissioner Vickie Raines noted that the budget always changes, and that could bring a positive impact to the general fund budget.

“It was our goal to trim almost $4 million down, and we might be in the black by the end of 2018 as well, which would be positive,” Raines said.

As she has in the past, Raines noted that a budget is flexible and could change at any time.

“It’s just a planning document,” Raines said. “We could pass it on Dec. 4 or Dec. 11 and have changes by Jan. 1, which we typically do.”

Budget manager Brenda Sherman noted the difficulty in building an accurate budget.

“As soon as you write a number down, something changes,” Sherman said.

No action was taken and budget discussions continue.