Jefferson County adopts $85.68 million 2025–26 budget and sets tax rates; commissioners approve slate of hires, grants and contracts

Jefferson County commissioners on June 15 adopted the county’s 2025–26 budget and set the county’s ad valorem tax rates, and in the same meeting approved a series of supplemental administrative and personnel actions. The county finance director presented the final budget figures before the board conducted a public hearing and a vote.

The board voted to adopt a $85,683,125 fiscal-year 2025–26 budget and to impose the permanent and local option property taxes at the rates shown in the resolution presented at the hearing. Finance director Cabral Solis told the board the budget before adoption includes small appropriation adjustments tied to a public-health reorganization and deputy district attorney grade changes that do not increase the total budget number approved earlier by the budget committee.

During the meeting the board also approved a range of personnel and operational items that the commissioners handled as individual motions. These actions included hiring and salary change orders, a short-term procurement authorization for public-health shelving, an intergovernmental agreement for a county weed coordinator, and several community and event funding decisions. The commissioners and staff framed most of those items as routine administration, but several drew substantive questions about oversight, budget impacts and the scope of county responsibility.

Votes at a glance - Adopt 2025–26 budget and impose property taxes: motion to adopt passed by voice vote. (Resolution adopting $85,683,125 and setting permanent and local option tax rates as published.) - Partition plat: signed the partition plat for Woodhill Homes, Inc., City of Land use file PP001-25 — motion passed by voice vote. - Consent agenda: approved items 6.1–6.3 — motion passed by voice vote. - Donation to Matter Sparklers: approved county contribution of $1,000 to the Matter Sparklers fireworks committee — motion passed by voice vote. - Gambler 500 cleanup: approved waiver/reimbursement of the standard $12-per-ton landfill fee for the Gambler 500 volunteer cleanup (to be paid from the county cleanup fund 509) — motion passed by voice vote. - Public-health shelving: authorized up to $22,000 for purchase of industrial shelving and directed staff to obtain at least three installation quotes; purchase to be charged to fund 2.39 (public-health grant funds) — motion passed. - IGA with Jefferson County Soil & Water Conservation District: approved a new intergovernmental agreement to continue funding a regional noxious-weed/weed-coordinator position (reimbursable agreement) — motion passed. The board discussed accountability and oversight in the agreement before voting. - Salary and hire orders (selected): approved multiple personnel actions including Tammy Kipa (public-health quality coordinator), Carla Hood (public-health finance & grants manager grade change), Logan Tabaga (assessor’s office appraiser trainee), Emily Wimberly (GIS cartography technician), Edgar Panetta (juvenile justice lead), Casey Thompson (probation lead) and other advertised appointments — motions passed. - Annual salary order and pay matrices: adopted the county annual salary order and matrices for represented and non‑represented staff (includes union matrices already negotiated and pending updates for ongoing negotiations) — motion passed. - Assessor salary: set the assessor’s salary to $118,000 effective 2025-06-21 — motion passed. - Broadband grant insurance authority: authorized the chair (or chair’s designee) to approve purchase of required pollution and professional liability insurance required by an Oregon Broadband Office grant, up to the amounts estimated by county risk (authority granted by motion).

Why this matters Adoption of the budget and the tax rates is the board’s central annual fiscal action: it finalizes county spending plans and the property-tax policy that funds many county services. The additional approvals the board took during the same session – personnel moves, intergovernmental agreements, and targeted funding decisions – implement the budget and set near-term program priorities such as public-health storage improvements, a noxious-weed coordinator, and volunteer-event support.

Details and context - Budget adoption: Cabral Solis, the county’s finance director, walked the board through a resolution that both adopts the county budget and imposes ad valorem property taxes (permanent and local option). Solis said the board had already approved the budget committee’s recommended total at the April 17 public hearing; the current resolution re-allocates appropriations between line items to reflect a public-health reorganization and deputy district attorney grade adjustments. Solis noted those appropriation changes are small and within the board’s 10% appropriation modification authority under Oregon law.

- Personnel and pay: the board approved a number of salary orders and hires that management said are needed to fully staff the assessor’s, public-health, planning/GIS and juvenile/probation programs. Commissioners discussed whether to treat elective-officer compensation differently; later in the meeting the board separately addressed a recommended adjustment to the assessor’s salary (see separate article).

- Public-health shelving procurement: Public-health staff said they face a June 30 grant deadline to purchase industrial shelving that will store pallets of clinical supplies. Because only a single full-service vendor bid was available at the time, the board authorized purchase of equipment (up to $22,000) and directed staff to collect competitive installation quotes. The board instructed that the purchase be charged to the stated grant fund.

- Gambler 500 cleanup and Matter Sparklers: commissioners discussed two community requests for county support. The board approved a $1,000 donation to the community fireworks committee and a plan to reimburse the Gambler 500 cleanup for landfill disposal (waiving the $12‑per‑ton charge) out of the county cleanup line item, subject to normal invoice procedures.

What’s next The finance department will post the adopted budget and the line‑item accounting breakout to the county web site. Directors will implement the approved hires and purchases and return to the board for any follow-up where required (for example, installation contracts for the shelving or budget amendments if actual costs exceed appropriations). The board directed staff to prepare a follow-up review of compensation structure and salary matrices for elected officials and department heads.

Ending note Board and staff repeatedly framed the approvals as implementation of the budget already reviewed by the budget committee and emphasized that several decisions were driven by small timing and compliance windows (grant deadlines, hiring needs). Several commissioners asked staff to return with options for longer‑term pay structures and to document oversight points in agreements where the county delegates work to outside organizations.