COLUSA, CA (MPG) – The Colusa County Board of Supervisors is four months from approving its 2025/26 budget and the wagons have already circled around the local public library system.
On May 20, Williams Unified School District Trustee Ed Davis, recently retired Colusa County Cooperative Extension employee Gerry Hernandez, retired physician Dr. Kerri Bartlett, and several others, addressed the board during public comment about a looming budget reduction in literacy services.
The Colusa County Budget ad hoc committee, which includes Board Chair Daurice Kalfsbeek-Smith, Supervisor Kent Boes, and Chief Executive Officer Wendy Tyler, issued budget instructions to all department heads on April 25 asking them to prepare a status quo budget for next year, absorb all known revenue losses and salary increases, and develop a mitigation plan for an additional 10 percent reduction.
The potential impact on library services immediately circulated on social media.
“Cutting libraries during hard times is just like cutting hospitals in a plague,” said Hernandez, who discovered a safe space in the library when she came to Colusa in 1988.
Hernandez said libraries have become much more than a place to check out books – and narrated a list of services, including GED preparation, games and puzzles, summer reading programs, family story time, sensational Saturdays, language tutors, heat/cooling centers, and programs added with about $480,000 from Colusa County Behavioral Health when the state made large investments in social services post pandemic.
The governor is now reversing those investments now that the State of California is facing a $12 billion shortfall, largely due to market instability and a decline in international tourism that directly resulted in a $16 billion estimated hit to the state’s revenues, according to a May 14 news release from Governor Gavin Newsom’s office.
The state’s 2025/26 budget will affect county services by increasing costs for some programs and potentially reducing funding for others.
“If the library has to absorb that loss, which is about a third of their budget, it is not sustainable…” Dr. Bartlett said. “It’s going to result in staff layoff. It’s going to restrict library services and possibly result in the closure of a branch library.”
Although the board chair or staff seldom respond to public comments, Smith allowed Tyler to clarify a misunderstanding that the county was singling out the library for cuts.
“Every county department has been asked to submit the same type of budget,” Tyler said. “Every county department is going to experience staffing issues and layoffs, potentially, but we had to have a level playing field to start.”
Tyler said that the library’s primary loss of revenue is the result of how the state plans to reallocate money for social services, and that the library will have to show the ad hoc committee what that impact will be.
Facing stagnant revenues and increased costs, especially in worker wages, all county departments must submit budget proposals by June 1, including the 10% reduction mitigation plan. Tyler said the ad hoc is not recommending using any General Fund reserves in this next budget cycle.
The ad hoc committee will review proposals and meet with department heads throughout June. The county has set Sept. 23 for adoption of the 2025/26 budget, following a public hearing before the full Board of Supervisors.
Advocates for the poor, elderly, and immigrant community, who attended last week’s Board of Supervisors meeting, voiced concerns about the budget’s potential impact on vulnerable populations.