Sharing Information | Encouraging Engagement
We held our budget hearing on September 22nd and adopted the final FY 2026/27 budget on September 28th. The full budget book runs to hundreds of pages, and I won’t try to recreate it here. But it’s your money, and the choices behind it matter — so here is a plain-language look at where we stand, the key decisions behind this year’s budget, and the questions I’ve been hearing most. My thanks to our small fiscal team, our department heads, and their staff, who carry an enormous load to get us here.
The Budget at a Glance
- About $164.9 million total — up 9.2%, but only about 1% once one-time grants are set aside.
- Balanced — using a one-time draw from prior-year savings (about $1.85 million in the General Fund, $11.24 million Countywide).
- A narrowing gap — the structural shortfall has come down from roughly $5 million a few years ago to about $1.85 million, though ongoing revenues and expenses aren’t yet fully aligned.
- No bonded debt — the county made its final bond payment this calendar year.
- Public safety first — about three-quarters of the discretionary General Fund.
- No general pay raises this year — step increases and promotions only.
A Few Questions I’ve Been Hearing
Is the county in financial trouble? No, though I don’t want to paint too rosy a picture either. We adopted a balanced budget in the same year we made our final bond payment — which is no small thing, and means that for the first time in a long while the county carries no long-term bonded debt. At the same time, balancing this year still took a one-time draw from prior-year savings, and the underlying gap between what it costs to run the county and the revenue coming in is real. We’ve narrowed that gap from around $5 million a few years ago to about $1.85 million today. The direction is encouraging; the pressure hasn’t gone away.
What does a “balanced budget” actually mean here? It means our planned spending and our available funding line up for the year — but how we got there matters. Closing the remaining gap took a roughly $1.85 million draw on prior-year cash, which is a one-time fix rather than an ongoing source of money. And a balanced budget doesn’t mean every department received what it needs; several are stretched thin, and some requests went unfunded. It’s a real balance, honestly arrived at, but not a comfortable one.
If money is tight, why is the total up 9.2%? Most of that increase is one-time grant money — largely state grants to expand behavioral health facilities here and in Hayfork — not day-to-day spending. Those are good dollars doing real work, but they arrive and leave with the grant. Set them aside, and our ongoing operating budget is up only about 1%.
Where does my money go? Public safety comes first. About three-quarters of the discretionary General Fund goes to public protection — the Sheriff’s Office, jail, dispatch, DA, Probation, Public Defender and related functions — which is in line with counties our size. Countywide, salaries and benefits are about 32% of the total budget, and about 42% of the General Fund. That share reflects how many people it takes to deliver county services across a large, rural county, not high pay; we’ve held compensation essentially flat.
Why are we talking about new revenue? Because our costs keep climbing faster than our revenue, and we can’t close that gap by trimming alone. The pressures are steady and mostly outside our control: insurance premiums are up more than 225% since 2021, with another increase expected next year; overall costs are up about 30% since 2019; our pension (PERS) obligations keep rising; and fuel is up more than 15% in the past year. We’ve offset some of this — holding salaries flat, and trimming utility costs about 7% since 2023 by making sure we’re billed at the rates we actually qualify for — but efficiencies only go so far.
Without new revenue, the choices ahead are hard ones: fewer services, slower response times, roads we can’t keep up with. That’s why the board is weighing three options — an increase to the transient occupancy (lodging) tax, a sales tax measure, and a Tourism Business Improvement District.
Would new revenue fall on residents? Two of the three — the lodging-tax increase and the Tourism Business Improvement District — are paid largely by visitors, not residents. And even with an increase, our lodging tax would stay on the low end of what most California counties already charge their visitors. These are worth a real community conversation, because the alternative is cutting services people here rely on.
How do we stretch the dollars we have? We lean hard on funding beyond the General Fund, and it adds up. Our Jail Health effort now covers about $1.2 million in costs the General Fund used to carry. Our cannabis program has stabilized at 360-plus licenses and brought in another $900,000 in state grant funding. Our Health and Human Services Agency is realigning some funding toward housing. And we’re standing up an AI-assisted platform to help us find, prioritize, and administer the grants that genuinely fit Trinity County — so we pursue the right money, not just any money.
Tying Dollars to Priorities
A budget is really a set of choices about priorities, and increasingly ours are guided by the county’s Strategic Plan — both the plan and the budget now run on the same platform. This year our CAO walked through how specific goals connect to real dollars: expanding behavioral health services and access, a multi-year road-repair effort, completing the General Plan, keeping the cannabis program stable, sustaining Jail Health, investing in succession planning and leadership development, and piloting the grants platform. We’re candid that the link between plan and budget isn’t as tight as we want it to be yet.
A new ad hoc committee — which I serve on with Supervisor Carpenter-Harris — is working to sharpen it, so that over time our spending lines up ever more clearly with the priorities we’ve set together.
Still Investing in the Basics
Even in a tight year, the core work continues. Our Department of Transportation maintains nearly 700 miles of road and 101 bridges, and chip-sealed 25 miles this summer. Planning for runway reconstruction is underway at the Trinity Center Airport, our busiest. We advanced a repeater and base-station replacement on Oregon Mountain to improve radio reliability for first responders. And we launched succession planning across departments to prepare for the leadership transitions ahead.
Looking Ahead
I expect next year to be another challenging one, driven largely by insurance and pension costs — which is exactly why the revenue conversation matters so much now. The full budget book, staff report, and hearing materials are available in the agenda packet for the September 22nd budget hearing: Budget Hearings — FY 26/27 · Agenda Packet & Budget Book.
As always, I’m glad to hear your questions and your priorities.
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