El Paso County CFO details budget calendar, reserve policy and TABOR refund

El Paso County Chief Financial Officer Nikki Simmons outlined the county's annual budget process, reserve policy and how the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) affects local finances in a podcast interview on Nov. 3.

Simmons said the county begins its budget process each March using a base-budget model and asks departments to submit their most critical needs. "Everything that we do in the county's budget is looked at through the lens of the county strategic plan," she said, adding that the administration compiles a preliminary balanced budget over the summer and presents it to the Board of County Commissioners in October as required by statute.

The preliminary balanced budget is administration's proposal; authority to set the budget rests with the Board of County Commissioners. Simmons described an open process of department hearings and a public "final direction hearing" where commissioners give nonbinding direction that staff then incorporate before the December adoption. She noted statutory deadlines: presentation of the preliminary balanced budget by Oct. 15 and final…