Tooele County Council adopts tentative 2026 budget, approves 2025 adjustments

The Tooele County Council on Oct. 21 adopted the county’s tentative 2026 budget with amendments and approved adjustments to the 2025 budget after a public presentation and public hearing.

County staff presented the tentative 2026 budget and recommended amendments before the council. Allison, a county budget staff member, said the county’s aggregated budget is $131,000,000 as presented and described capital requests of about $11,400,000 and $2,200,000 in equipment requests. She said the tentative budget includes a 3.25 percent cost-of-living adjustment and that the merit pool was presented as a 22 percent recommendation but the budget used an average 1.25 percent merit figure “based on how the merit was given out over the last year.” Allison also noted there is no proposed increase to employee health insurance in the tentative budget presentation.

Allison said the tentative document is a working draft and that staff discovered clerical errors after publication — including an extra zero added to the aging department line…