One of the major items that will dig into this year's budget is a $3.5 million request from the clerk's office. That money is needed to comply with new election requirements under the federal Help America Vote Act, County Clerk Sherrie Swensen said.

In addition to roughly $200,000 already allotted for new personnel, Swensen said the division needs to buy 100 more Diebold electronic voting machines to supplement the 2,844 machines paid for by the state.

At $3,600 a machine, the new equipment will cost about $360,000 and will still not be as plentiful as the 5,000 voting stations used during the 2004 election, Swensen said.

"We haven't used that small a number of machines since the early '90s," she said. "I'm a little concerned — a lot concerned."

Along with new machines, Swensen said the clerk's office also needs to hire more poll workers to man the 400 voting locations across the county. Those workers, who are normally volunteers, will now have to be trained in machine technology and will be paid higher wages for more hours.

The county will also need to find a climate-controlled storage facility to house the Diebold equipment, which Swensen said could cost between $10,000 and $12,000 a month to rent.

"We put in a real lean budget to make sure that it is only our needs. If we have to start making cuts, then I would be concerned that we can't implement this as efficiently as I would hope to," she said.

Corroon said he has talked with state leaders about getting additional funds to meet the election requirements, but counties across the nation are having to take a bite out of their budgets for new electronic systems.

"These increased costs are not things that we can control. You can't control the federal government telling you we have to buy a lot of new machinery," Corroon said. "It's millions and millions of dollars we don't have."

But Corroon does have discretion over several budget requests that may not see funding this year. A $5 million request from the sheriff's office to reopen Oxbow Jail will likely not get the go-ahead unless the county receives some federal funding to house the prisoners.

To aid Corroon and County Council members who will be hammering out the 2006 budget, Brown said each policymaker will get a "budget narrative" along with raw budget numbers. That report, now required from each division, will outline the group's goals, mission, accomplishments and justification for additional funding.

"You can inundate people with data, but we're trying to give them the information that makes a difference," Brown said.

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E-mail: estewart@desnews.com