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Commissioners direct staff to model 3% COLA; county begins using ClearGov tool for FY2026 budgeting
Summary
During an April 1 budget workshop, commissioners instructed staff to model a 3% cost-of-living adjustment as a placeholder for FY2026 while revenue estimates and departmental inputs are finalized; staff introduced ClearGov as the county's new budgeting visualization and workflow tool.
Sweetwater County commissioners on April 1 instructed staff to include a 3% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) as a placeholder in FY2026 budget models and previewed a new budgeting platform, ClearGov, to streamline departmental submissions and public-facing budget visualization.
Commissioner Slaughter and Commissioner Richards both advocated a 3% COLA as a starting point; commissioners agreed the figure is a placeholder to be revisited as final revenue figures are confirmed. County staff noted that, based on current full-time payroll, a 1% COLA would cost roughly $200,000 — so each additional percentage point is approximately $200,000 in recurring payroll cost.
Staff also demonstrated ClearGov, a cloud-based budgeting and visualization tool. County department heads and component units will submit their budget requests and explanatory funding packages through ClearGov; the platform will preserve attachments and create public-facing charts for review. Staff offered to schedule a hands-on training session for commissioners and department heads to learn ClearGov’s navigation and commenting features before the next round of budget workshops.
Commissioners and staff discussed revenue uncertainty tied to state changes and property valuation estimates; staff will update projections when state guidance and final assessor valuations are available and present revised numbers to the board. The board recessed the workshop planning to run department-level trainings and continue budget work.
