Teton County held a special meeting June 30 to refine the proposed fiscal 2026 budget after the County Clerk updated revenue projections and identified a roughly $520,000 shortfall.

County Clerk said the budget figures include the cost-of-living adjustment but do not include merit or bonus payments, nor the new positions requested by the sheriff and prosecutor. "We've identified up to this point what we think we can use for the main CAD, which is about $673,000," the County Clerk told commissioners, and added, "So we're looking at about, like, $520,000 that we need to cut from this budget." The clerk also said building-permit receipts were tracking higher than previously forecast and that she increased that revenue estimate by about $150,000 after consulting the building department.

The clerk briefed commissioners on how "remaining cash" works: it is fund-specific and not a year-to-year pool that can freely offset ongoing expenses. "Remaining cash is not a year-over-year thing. Think of it as our savings account. It's per fund," she said, noting remaining cash typically funds one-time capital or implementation costs, not recurring salaries.

Discussion focused on where to reduce ongoing costs versus using one-time remaining cash. Commissioners and staff examined salary lines (noting many departments underspent in 2024 because of vacancies), medical-insurance projections, and capital requests. The clerk emphasized the intent to produce a sustainable operating budget rather than rely heavily on remaining cash. She warned that relying on uncertain revenues (for example, building permits) could expose the county to volatility if market conditions change.

Items discussed but not finalized included trimming travel and training budgets, delaying one-time IT purchases, and reexamining several departmental capital requests. Commissioners asked department heads and the sheriff to identify specific cuts they could accept and set a short timeline for return answers.

No policy changes or budget approvals were finalized at the meeting; the only formal action recorded in the transcript was approval of the special meeting agenda at the start of the session.

The county will reconvene follow-up meetings to decide which line items to cut, whether to use portions of remaining cash for specified one-time projects, and how to prioritize recurring obligations such as health insurance and permanent positions.