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Columbia County submits proposed FY2025-26 budget to budget committee, notes end of ARPA funding
Summary
Commissioner McGruder submitted the Columbia County proposed fiscal year 2025–26 budget for consideration under Oregon law, saying it covers operations through June 2026 and reflects the end of roughly $14 million in ARPA funding that previously inflated revenues.
Commissioner McGruder submitted the proposed fiscal year 2025–26 budget to the Columbia County budget committee on June 11, citing Oregon budget law ORS 294.403 and saying the plan provides funding to “continue operations through June 2026.”
The proposed budget covers multiple funds and program accounts: McGruder said it is “made of 23 funds encompassing 53 component units, 55 grants, and 10 fiduciary accounts for a total of 141 budgets that must be balanced and tracked.” The presentation noted changes from prior years intended to make accounting clearer and to meet audit standards.
McGruder said the county in recent budgets segregated internal service departments — including commissioners’ counsel, information technology, general services, finance and human resources — out of the general fund into an internal service fund. He also said public health grant activity was moved to Fund 208 as restricted grant funds. Those reclassifications, he said, make the general fund presentation “more accurate and concise and better meet accounting audit standards.”
The budget message flagged a large reduction in revenues and expenditures compared with recent years because “we received only over $14,000,000 in ARPA funds since 2022, funds that are no longer available,” McGruder said. The transcript of the hearing did not include a clear total for the proposed budget amount; the budget message as recorded was truncated and did not specify a final total in the available audio.
McGruder opened the submission by citing state budget law: “Pursuant to Oregon budget law ORS 294.403, I hereby submit this fiscal year 2025–2026 proposed budget for consideration by the budget committee.” The submission was presented as a formal transmittal to the budget committee; no vote on the budget was recorded in the available transcript.
Next steps identified in the hearing are review and consideration by the Columbia County budget committee. The message summarized structural accounting changes and the end of one-time ARPA funding as the primary drivers of the year-over-year decreases in budgeted revenues and expenditures.
