Curry County budget committee forwards proposed 2025–26 budget to commissioners after corrections, votes 5–1

Curry County budget committee members voted 5–1 on June 16 to forward a proposed fiscal 2025–26 budget to the Board of Commissioners for final adoption, after identifying a misclassified federal revenue item that reduced the committee's operating contingency.

The committee moved quickly through a review of the draft budget, which the committee chair described as "a statement of intent" emphasizing fiscal stewardship and a balanced approach. During the review staff and committee members identified that $944,000 in recent O&C (ONC) receipts had been recorded in a miscellaneous revenue line in addition to an ONC line, effectively double-counting the payment in the draft. After staff agreed to correct the classification, committee staff said the operating contingency would fall to roughly $93,565 from the higher, incorrect figure that had been printed on recent worksheets.

Why it matters: committee members said the correction reduces the apparent cushion the county would carry into the fiscal year and underscores remaining data clean-up. Finance staff told the committee that audited reconciliations remain incomplete for prior years and that the most recent complete audit (for fiscal 2022-23) was only just finished; 2023-24 work was still in progress. Staff and members repeatedly said the budget as presented is "raw" and that supplementals in the first quarter will be needed to refine personnel cost projections, correct classification errors and incorporate any new grant or appropriations money.

Key details - Vote: The committee approved forwarding the proposed budget to the Board of Commissioners for final adoption, with four committee members recorded as voting yes and one recorded no; the chair announced the motion passed 5 to 1. (Committee member Swanson flagged that he would not approve without more information on sheriff staffing and indicated that he would not support approval without that information.) - ONC revenue: Staff confirmed the county actually received $944,000 in ONC/BLM funds this year; earlier worksheets included an estimated $1,001,xxx figure and also placed the $944,000 in miscellaneous revenue. Staff said they would move the $944,000 to the correct ONC revenue line and remove the duplicate miscellaneous entry. - Contingency: Removing the misclassified $944,000 reduced the draft contingency to about $93,565, staff said. Committee members called the correction a "good catch." - Audits and actuals: Finance staff said 2024-25 actuals in the packet reflect actuals through May 31, 2025, but audited reconciliations for 2023-24 were not yet complete. Committee members asked that forecasts be tied to audited actuals where possible; staff said Moss Adams had been engaged to finish audit work. - Personnel-cost projection: The draft used a 7.5% blanket estimate for health and benefit increases and asked departments to submit status-quo worksheets with a 10% personnel-cost placeholder; staff said those placeholders will be refined when final rates and audited data are available.

Discussion and next steps Several committee members and staff said the draft budget intentionally preserves flexibility by adopting a status-quo framework now and planning multiple supplementals in the first fiscal quarter to refine department-level details, incorporate any federal appropriations (staff cited a potential $1.4 million jail appropriation in congressional appropriations language) and finalize staffing decisions. The committee instructed finance staff to correct the ONC classification and publish the proposed budget notice for the Board's consideration.

Ending: The committee chair said staff would prepare the corrected budget for publication and the Board of Commissioners would consider the proposal for final adoption. The meeting adjourned at 3:01 p.m.