Kings County Board adopts FY 2025–26 recommended budget and schedules final hearings

The Kings County Board of Supervisors on June 17 adopted a recommended fiscal year 2025'26 budget of $571,407,565 and set final budget hearings to begin Aug. 25, with a final board action planned in mid'September.

The recommended budget includes a general fund of $404,282,120 and proposes 1,694.51 full'time equivalent positions, a net decrease of 15 FTE from last year. County Administrative Officer Kerrio Martinez told the board the net staffing reduction is a step the county is taking to improve long'term financial sustainability.

The budget matters because it sets spending authority for county departments on July 1 and frames decisions the board must make before the books close in August. Martinez and Deputy County Administrative Officer Matthew Boyette told supervisors rising retirement and benefit costs, constrained revenue growth and one'time funding that will not recur are key pressures shaping the plan.

"The overall recommended budget totals $571,407,565, which is about $10,800,000 more than last year's adopted budget," Boyette said during the presentation. He and Martinez emphasized that county salaries and benefits total roughly $275 million, nearly half the county's operating budget, and that CalPERS pension contribution changes remain a principal fiscal challenge.

Martinez told the board that the county's required CalPERS contributions are changing: "required contributions have increased from 39.8% to 42% for safety employees, but have decreased from 25% to 23% for non'safety employees for fiscal year [25'26]." The administrators said the increase for safety employees will continue to put pressure on the general fund.

The recommended budget relies in part on one'time funding. Boyette said the budget builds a $10,660,000 contingency but that about $8.5 million of that contingency is composed of one'time dollars, including roughly $2.8 million remaining in a pension obligation bond fund and approximately $4.6 million in Project Homekey FEMA reimbursements. Without the one'time sources, the county's natural contingency would be roughly $2.1 million, well below the Government Finance Officers Association's guidance, Boyette said.

The recommended budget also shows an estimated fund balance of $37,120,000 and projects current'year general fund revenue of about $367 million. Boyette warned departments asked for roughly $9.3 million more than available revenue in their initial requests and that the administration had worked with departments to reduce spending to present a balanced recommended budget.

Several program areas were flagged as drivers of increased net county cost. Boyette said the Human Services Agency's net county cost has risen about 22.66% since last fiscal year and will require additional county support next year. He also called out increases in liability and self'insurance costs, public safety overtime and information technology expenses.

The county also faces several pending or uncertain cost pressures the presentation identified as not fully built into the recommended budget: renegotiations with the county's prosecutors and fire unions (contracts that became out of date July 1), potential new costs from the county's recent assumption of responsibility for the Mid Kings River Groundwater Sustainability Agency (Mid Kings River GSA), and the end of some pandemic'era one'time funding streams such as ARPA.

Regarding the GSA, Boyette said the county will need a local funding mechanism to avoid the GSA becoming a larger draw on the general fund and noted that a Proposition 218 election or other local funding would be the typical route to create a dedicated revenue source for groundwater management costs.

Board members and department leaders pressed for more detail on several items during the presentation. Sheriff Dave Robinson described a growing unreimbursed cost associated with court security detail for the county'operated jail and court services, which the administration initially projected at about $500,000 for the year. Robinson said his office is working to reduce that impact and believes it may come down to about $100,000 when final accounting is complete.

Several supervisors asked the administration to continue working with departments on mid'year estimates and to present more frequent updates as the budget moves from recommended to final. Boyette said closing the county books in late July or early August will produce firmer figures for the final budget hearings.

The board voted unanimously to adopt the recommended budget as the county's working budget for FY 2025'26 and to schedule final budget hearings beginning Monday, Aug. 25, 2025 at 10 a.m. The board was shown a timeline leading to a final budget resolution and printed budget books to be returned to the board in mid September for final adoption and submission to the state controller.

The administration recommended and the board approved a set of programmatic staffing changes included in the recommended budget: a net reduction of 15 FTE countywide, targeted reductions and reorganizations in county counsel, job training, child support and other departments, and the unfunding of 17 position allocations in public health.

Martinez told the board the recommended budget "is a significant step in the right direction" to preserve long'term sustainability but cautioned that the contingency is considerably supplemented by one'time funds that will not be available next fiscal year.

The board approved the recommended budget by the following action: a motion to adopt the fiscal year 2025'26 recommended budget and schedule final hearings passed on a 5'0 vote.

Looking ahead, Boyette told the board final budget hearings are set for Aug. 25 (a Monday), with the final budget resolution and printed budget book to be presented at a mid'September meeting to meet the state controller's Oct. 2 deadline for county budget submission.

Votes at a glance: the board approved the recommended FY 2025'26 budget as presented and set final hearings to commence Aug. 25, 2025 (vote 5'0).