The Grays Harbor County commissioners have approved a budget for the 2017 general fund, literally meeting in the middle to do so.

Facing an end-of-the-year deadline when, by law, the county has to have a budget, the commission on Thursday passed a budget that amounts to a median of the three proposed spending plans. They went department by department and took the middle figure of the three that had been proposed by the three commissioners.

Commissioners signaled that they’ll adjust the budget during the coming year. “It’s a planning document, and we could change it next month,” Commissioner Vickie Raines said. “I don’t like it, but I’m going with it just so we can get something on the books. We’ll work on it in 2017.”

The median budget creates the highest operating deficit of the four options, with expenses for the year of about $1.25 million in excess of expected revenue. The difference would be made up by reserves.

Raines’ proposed budget had an operating deficit nearing that level at $1.24 million. Cormier’s budget — which was adjusted late last week — had an operating deficit of just over $1 million.

Union negotiations are ongoing for staff contracts, which could lead to pay increases for county employees. Those increases would affect the general fund.

When asked if the adopted budget included funding for those potential increases, Cormier noted the commissioners plan to address any increases later.

“That’s something that we’re going to have to consider later on in the year,” Cormier said. “We’ve talked about looking at emergency budgets, doing them three or four times throughout the year.”

As the commissioners have said during past budget periods, Raines noted that the budget is a “working document.”