The San Juan County Commission approved final adjustments to the county’s 2024 budgets and adopted the 2025 general fund and related budgets after staff recommended conservative revenue assumptions and several line-item changes.

County finance staff told the commission they had closed the year’s last payroll and bills and were aiming for conservative revenue estimates so the county would not rely on optimistic projections. “We’re trying to plan a very conservative revenue budget for the end of the year, so that we don't get in trouble with predicting too much coming in and not having it come in,” finance staff said.

For the 2024 year‑end adjustment, commissioners voted unanimously to adopt staff’s proposed changes intended to narrow the year’s anticipated deficit. For the fiscal 2025 budget, commissioners approved a proposed $8.8 million revenue baseline while making a motion to restore $150,000 to the jail medical expenses line. Commissioner Adams moved to adopt the 2025 budget with that change; commissioners approved the motion 3–0. The added $150,000 will be covered by additional LACTF (federal/local) funding, the motion said.

Staff also briefed commissioners on several structural and operational items the 2025 budget assumes: no across-the-board salary increases, no net new positions in the baseline, consolidation of building-inspection functions under planning and zoning, and reclassifying some interfund charges to better reflect the cost of central services (HR, IT, clerk/auditor functions). Finance staff highlighted major revenue issues the commission weighed during the session: payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILT) timing, potential loss of a TRT (tourism) revenue source tied to a property sale, and the county's use of federal ARPA/LACTF funds to smooth large one‑time costs.

Commissioners and department heads also discussed internal staffing pressures: planning, code enforcement and other departments flagged workload concerns, and the recorder’s office described a personnel transfer that left multiple departments waiting on decisions about training and pay. Commissioners instructed staff to continue analysis and to bring midyear adjustments if necessary.

Both the 2024 adjustments and the 2025 budget were approved by unanimous votes.