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El Paso County reports stronger-than-expected 2025 preliminary results, adds $11M to reserves
Summary
County Chief Financial Officer Nikki Simmons told commissioners the unaudited preliminary 2025 results show a net positive variance to budget driven by offsetting revenue gains and underspending: $888,000 in extra revenues, a $53M underspend of which $42M was reappropriated and about $11M added to a 26% general fund balance. Commissioners pressed for details on a school-district split assessment and specific ownership tax impacts.
Nikki Simmons, chief financial officer for El Paso County, presented the county's unaudited preliminary results for 2025, saying the general fund unrestricted revenues finished with a $888,000 positive variance and overall at 100.4% of the revenue budget.
Simmons said sales and use tax collections came in $5.25 million below budget but rose 1.99% compared with the prior year, while interest revenues exceeded budget by $3.36 million as year-end interest rates averaged about 3.57 percent. Clerk and recorder fees were about $2.6 million above budget, driven by increased refinancing activity, she said.
The county ended the year with a $53 million positive variance in unrestricted expenditures. Of that amount, $42 million was rolled forward through reappropriations to fund projects already in process, and roughly $11 million was added to fund balance, bringing the county's general fund unrestricted reserve to about 26 percent.
Commissioners asked several clarifying questions. Vice Chair Lauren Nelson pressed Simmons on a change she described as a "split assessment rate" that took effect for 2024 taxes payable in 2025. Simmons explained that the change allowed school districts to apply a higher assessed value on residential property than some local governments, increasing the school districts' share of property-related revenues and changing how specific ownership tax (vehicle registration-derived funds) is distributed across taxing jurisdictions.
Simmons said the split assessment arrangement does not necessarily increase overall statewide funding for schools; rather, it shifts which jurisdictions receive a larger share of certain locally distributed revenues. She said intergovernmental revenues were about $897,000 shy of expectations due to timing on grant spending and that a $14 million federal grant was recorded as in-process revenue that will be recognized when expenditures occur.
On federal relief funds, Simmons reiterated that American Rescue Plan Act allocations must be spent by Dec. 31, 2026, and said obligations were in place as of Dec. 31, 2024; she said the county has a plan to meet those deadlines and will report audited final adjustments in June.
No formal action was requested or taken on the presentation; commissioners thanked Simmons for the report and posed follow-up questions about appropriations and fund timing.
