Budget Matters & Community Meetings

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This update focuses on budget-related issues here in Trinity County. I have included information that I hope helps readers understand what led to our current situation, the actions being taken to balance our budget for this fiscal year, and some of the options we have to improve our financial position (and ability to fund county services) as we move forward.

2024/2025 PROPOSED BUDGET 

The proposed 2024/2025 Budget was published on Friday afternoon. Click here to review the online documents. The introductory letter provides an executive summary that can help you understand all the detail that follows.

As previously shared, this proposed budget reflects plans to cease funding our Library System and all but legally mandated Animal Shelter services. More specifically, based on the proposed budget:

• The Hayfork and Trinity Center Libraries will close effective November 1^st, 2024. The Weaverville Library will reduce operating hours effective November 1^st, 2024, and will close effective January 1^st, 2025;

 

• Staff and service reductions within the Trinity County Animal Shelter will start on November 1^st, 2024 and the Animal Shelter as it operates today will close effective April 1^st, 2025. Trinity County will continue to enforce and operate the rabies control and associated dog license program;

At the most basic level, we face tough decisions like these because our expenses are increasing faster than our revenues. For example, the proposed budget reflects funding of 22 fewer positions than were funded in our budget just a couple of years ago. Despite this reduction in staffing levels, the cost of salaries and benefits is up by over $1 million.  We have experienced similar increases in the cost of insurance policies. These are just a few examples of cost increases that have led to the need to consider difficult decisions like defunding some services.  Other difficult, but less visible, cost-cutting decisions are reflected in this proposed budget.

 

FUNDING OPTIONS

There are many sources of funding within the Trinity County Budget. Within the discretionary portion of the General Fund (which is the source of funding for things like the Animal Shelter and Library System), the primary sources of revenue include Sales Taxes, Property Taxes, Cannabis Taxes, and Transient Occupancy Taxes.

One way in which each of these revenue sources can increase funding for county services is for our economy to grow. For example, more tourists spending money in our local businesses translates into increased Sales Tax revenues. More tourists staying in local hotels, vacation rentals, etc… translates into increased Transient Occupancy Tax revenues. More successful (licensed and permitted) commercial cannabis operations translate into both increased Cannabis Tax revenues and (through purchases within the county) increased Property and Sales Tax revenues.

Our Trinity County Strategic Plan calls for the development of a revitalization strategy. This will outline strategies and key initiatives that can be undertaken to support revitalization of communities and economic development within Trinity County. That said, it’s important to note that Trinity County does not currently fund positions dedicated to economic development. County-related efforts to support economic development include our work on our new Housing Element and General Plan. Housing is key to our ability to attract and retain employees – both for the county and for local businesses.  Deliverables from our General Plan initiative include streamlining our ordinances and policies so that we can better support the businesses and individuals who want to invest in our communities.

A Funding Sources Ad Hoc Committee has been looking into ways in which we might generate additional funds to support county services. We have learned that some counties have generated additional revenue through the introduction of Community Service Areas (CSA). This is a means by which communities (or the county as a whole) can elect to pay additional fees per parcel to raise funds that will be used for specific purposes. For example, a CSA could be put in place that is dedicated solely to funding the Animal Shelter, or the Library, or additional Law Enforcement services.

In addition to our research into CSAs, we have gathered information regarding the amount of revenues that could be generated through increases in already established programs such as the Sales Tax and Transient Occupancy Tax. We have also been talking about how nonprofit organizations could be involved in supporting/providing services that the county might no longer be able to fund.

 

COMMUNITY MEETINGS

Since Weaverville is split into two districts, Supervisor Cox and I hosted a joint community meeting at the Veterans Memorial Hall last week. I have a meeting scheduled this coming week in Lewiston and a meeting in Trinity Center the following week. While the community meetings can be used to discuss other topics of interest, I expect that (like in Weaverville) most of our time will be spent discussing budget matters.

One aspect of the community meetings is engaging community members in exercises to determine priorities and assess the level of support for different approaches to generating additional funds for county services. I believe that the people who participated in our recent meeting were those most concerned about the proposed loss of services. As a result, I’m guessing that the level of support they showed for initiatives to generate new funding is higher than that of the general population. That said, I think it is helpful to see the results of these exercises.  Here are some key takeaways from our exercises during the Weaverville Community Meeting.

• Collectively, hypothetical funds were allocated fairly evenly between the options provided. The Animal Shelter received the strongest support.