Commissioners debate using Fund 47 optional sales tax to cover county shuttle and keep trails funded

Commissioner McCandless proposed shifting money from Fund 47 (the optional sales tax account) and mitigation funds to cover the county shuttle and to restore funding for outside entities. “If we add that $84,750 to the 209 (thousand negative), that’s gonna bring us into a bigger deficit. That’ll be $300,000,” she said, recommending a split between Fund 47 and mitigation to balance the midyear amendment.

Several commissioners pushed back or asked for clarity about legal uses. One commissioner said they had the statute open and questioned whether recreational trails are an allowable use for the optional sales tax; another warned that Fund 47 has historically been used to support multimodal trail maintenance and is politically popular. Commissioner Bill Henson asked staff to place a formal agenda item to consider removing $500,000 from Fund 47 at the next commission meeting. Finance staff said they had not performed a full composition analysis for Fund 47 at the meeting but estimated the fund balance was near $1,000,000 and advised that formal earmarking had not been made.

Commissioners agreed to bring a formal agenda item to the next commission meeting to quantify Fund 47’s balance and consider a transfer; one commissioner favored a lower figure (about $300,000) to avoid stripping the fund of money needed for trail projects. No formal vote was taken at the workshop.