- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
Board of Supervisors approves $319 million budget for new fiscal year
The final recommended budget for the county and its special districts for fiscal year 2021-22 totals $319,386,115, down slightly from the adopted 2020-21 fiscal year budget of $322,362,410.
The board’s public hearing on the budget Tuesday morning was a matter of fine tuning, touching on some of the major adjustments made since the supervisors held June budget hearings and approved an initial budget of $307,498,431.
One of the large new sources of money coming into the county this year is through the American Rescue Plan Act.
Lake County is receiving $12.5 million from the act. The county has already received half of that amount already, with the final installment to come next spring, said County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson.
Just how those funds will be spent by the county of Lake was not revealed on Tuesday; Huchingson said an ad committee is actively working on plans to spend those funds and those recommendations will be presented to the board in October.
“It’s a tremendous opportunity for Lake County,” said Huchingson, noting she hasn’t seen anything like this before during her tenure.
Huchingson said the funds can be used in a variety of ways, from pandemic response to infrastructure. One possible use might be broadband, although she said there is other money now coming forward for the long-awaited broadband expansion.
Deputy Administrative Officer Stephen Carter told the board that staff had made 365 changes made to the budget, mostly minor adjustments in numbers and funds.
He said the county had a high general fund balance carry-over — in part due to salary savings from the county’s high vacancy rate. Staff recommended placing $3.5 million of that carry-over into the reserves, putting the reserves at $12.5 million, or 25%.
Carter said several revenue streams came in during the 2020-21 fiscal year that were at the highest levels in the county’s history.
Those high-performing revenue sources included property tax, which came in just over $1.1 million higher than the previous year, for a 4.74% increase, he said.
Bradley-Burns sales tax, which comes from a law which provides for 1 ¼% of proceeds for cities and counties, brought in $4,414,350.19 for the 2021 fiscal year, which was an increase of $1,132,343.86 over fiscal year 2019-20, Carter reported.
Carter said Proposition 172 sales tax revenues, which come from a one-half percent sales tax that can be used for public safety, equaled $3,417,484.37 last fiscal year, an increase of $182,079.29 over the previous year.
Transient occupancy, or bed tax, came in at $1.9 million, an increase of more than $247,909.76 over 2019-20. When removing proceeds related to the county’s tourism improvement district, Carter said that revenue totaled $977,000, the highest it’s been since 2002, when Konocti Harbor Resort remained in operation.
One of the main changes discussed on Tuesday was a $100,000 increase to the Board of Supervisors’ budget unit to cover facilitation services for the community visioning forum process.
Another budget adjustment was for $306,275 the county received from the state to pay for the gubernatorial recall election on Tuesday.
Since the recommended budget was approved in June, Carter said nine requested positions were added: temporary property tax coordinator, Public Works service technician, business software analyst, deputy sheriff, sheriff’s public information officer, deputy sheriff sergeant, code enforcement officer, staff services analyst and Water Resources field maintenance technician.
The staff report to the board also noted that in anticipation of the supervisors completing implementation of the human resources classification and compensation study of October 2019, payroll cost adjustments will be budgeted at midyear.
“We have more money than the county has ever seen before,” said Board Chair Bruno Sabatier, noting that some of it is from the state and federal government due to COVID-19, along with the increased tax proceeds and cannabis tax funds.
Sabatier said the county is taking steps to look at big future projects, noting that they need to get to a five-year strategic plan. “I think we are on that path.”
“We haven’t had an opportunity like this before,” said Supervisor Moke Simon.
Simon said they want to strengthen the workforce and this budget is a step in that direction.
The board unanimously approved three separate motions — adoption of the final recommended budget resolution, adoption of a resolution establishing new classifications and amending the position allocation chart for fiscal year 2021-22, and the continuation of the informal hiring freeze for general fund departments, delegating authority to the county administrative officer to waive that hiring freeze as appropriate.
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