The City of Spokane can’t afford to pay what Spokane County is charging for jail beds.

The city is sitting on two months of unpaid jail bills. That’s about $1 million, City Management and Budget Director Jessica Stratton said in a mid-July special budget hearing.

Spokane’s Criminal Justice Assistance Fund, which the city has used to pay for jail beds since 2007, is empty. The fund is typically filled with dollars from the state criminal justice sales tax.

“This was more than sustainable at the time,” Stratton said in the meeting. “The sales taxes were coming in higher than the jail cost, so the fund itself built up a healthy fund balance.”

But those extra dollars “became alluring” during financial stress brought on by the COVID pandemic.

The city dipped into the fund to pay the police

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