The Colusa County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday adopted a recommended $155 million 2023-24 spending plan that will meet unavoidable increases and a permanent reduction in revenue without dipping into reserves.
The board will adopt its final budget for the fiscal year, which begins July 1, at a regular meeting in September, officials said.
“The General Fund component of this budget is roughly $45.7 million,” said Colusa County Administrative Officer Wendy Tyler.
While the budget is balanced, Tyler said anticipated revenues for all departments, special district, county service areas, dependent special districts, and other restricted funds are $137.6 million, leaving the county to bridge the gap with $10.3 million coming from special revenues from Social Services, Behavioral Health, and Road departments, and the $7.3 million cash balance in the general fund.
Officials said that while the county saw a 3% increase in the property tax roll, the county continues to grapple with the permanent $1.7 reduction in the general fund, which resulted from the state redetermining that the unitary tax revenue from the PG&E plant in Maxwell must be appropriated to all special districts formed in Colusa County prior to the 1979 passage of AB 8, the Special District Augmentation Fund.
Although the recommended 2023-24 budget reflects a 12.9% increase over last year, $17.7 million is the allocation for the new jail construction project, which is finally moving forward, Tyler said.
Due to an overall reduction in revenue, county departments did manage to reduce spending by about 5.4% by making a few cuts, while continuing to provide necessary services to the public, officials said.
“This was a challenging budget year to say the least,” said Chairman Kent Boes, a member of the budget ad hoc committee.
Salaries and benefits, which comprise 35.6% of the budget, increased 11.3% over last year’s final budget, which resulted in several departments opting to leave positions unfunded and vacant. The county included a 10% increase for new medical insurance rates that take effect in January, but are still unknown at this time. There may also be new salary increases that may come from collective bargaining, officials said. The county has about 430 full-time employees.
The county also had unavoidable increases in fuel, insurance, and utilities – due to inflation.
“All the things we are grappling with in our private lives certainly affect the county as well,” Tyler said.
In addition to the jail expansion project, the 2023-24 recommended budget includes several major expenditures, including a $1.2 million buy-in to the Sites Reservoir Project, using funds from the American Rescue Plan Act, and $10 million for road projects on Grimes-Arbuckle Road and River Road.
The county also intends to move forward with upgrades to the animal control facility, the creation of a westside behavioral health campus, the purchase of five new vehicles for the Sheriff’s Department, and the lease of five new vehicles for Public Works and four for the Probation Department.
The county did not allocate funding to either East Park Reservoir or the Colusa County Resource Conservation District, as was the case last year.
The county also did not allocate funding for needed maintenance for aging facilities, roofs, and parking lots.
“There is still more work to do,” Boes said.■