Preliminary 2026 budget: Mason County finance director shows $24M beginning balance, outlines policy-level requests

Mason County's finance director presented a high-level maintenance-level budget overview for 2026 at the Sept. 29 briefing.

Heather (finance director) reported the preliminary estimate of the general fund's beginning balance for 2026 at $24,000,000. Staff showed projected general-fund revenues of $46,630,556 and combined beginning balance plus revenues of approximately $78,630,556. At the maintenance level the county's 2026 estimated salaries and benefits totalled $38,191,286 and operating expenditures were estimated at $18,984,019, yielding a projected ending fund balance of roughly $13,455,251 and an estimated use of fund balance (difference between beginning and ending cash) of $10,544,749.

Heather noted the 2026 preliminary figures do not include several one-time 2025 items (about $1.05 million), and that the draft does not assume a property-tax increase. She also summarized policy-level requests: total policy requests shown in the briefing materials for the general fund were $2,757,142 (staff indicated a more detailed breakdown will be provided), and special-fund policy requests included $1,960,054 in revenue-side requests and $5,893,700 in special-fund expenditure policy requests.

Staff said departments will be scheduled in October to present and justify their policy-level requests and that a more detailed budget packet would be available for the commission before subsequent action. No budget action was taken at the briefing; the presentation was a request to proceed with scheduled department briefings and to prepare options for the commissioners.

Provenance: figures and presentation are from 01:40:53 to 01:58:16 in the transcript; excerpt: "the estimated beginning fund balance for, oneone of '26 is $24,000,000 in the general fund." (Heather, 01:41:06).