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Commissioners praise FY27 budget delivery after major ERP conversion; staff warn two-year budget would be risky now
Summary
County staff reported a successful transition to a new ERP and cloud budget software and delivered a largely error-free proposed FY27 budget; commissioners praised transparency but finance staff said current revenue uncertainty and staffing limits make a two-year budget cycle infeasible at present.
Washington County commissioners and county finance staff on Aug. 6 reviewed the FY27 proposed budget process and the technical transition behind it. An agency official credited staff with completing a major systems change: “So significant work in transitioning Workday and going live in January,” the official said, and noted the county also migrated 10 years of data into a new chart of accounts and moved Questica budget software to a cloud version. Staff said those behind-the-scenes conversions made producing the budget more complex but that they ultimately delivered a “budget book with, from my estimation, very little errors.”
Commissioners said the open, transparent process and the five-year financial forecast helped guide decisions. Chair Harrington noted the board's guiding principles were valuable in shaping priorities. When asked about whether the county should shift to a two-year budget cycle to reduce staff time, the agency official cautioned that ongoing federal and state revenue uncertainty and the recent ERP transition create risk: a two-year cycle now would likely require sizeable supplemental budgets later, and staff time savings would be limited. Commissioners raised staffing and capacity concerns; several agreed the budget books and public engagement have improved since 2019 and that onboarding for incoming board members should emphasize the role of the board in setting priorities.
