The Board of Supervisors will hold the county's annual budget hearings on Wednesday, Aug. 17, in the board chambers on the first floor of the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport.
The hearings, open to the public, will begin at 8:30 a.m., and are expected to last for the rest of the day.
The board will go over budgets for each of the county's departments and consider adopting the resolution that will put the 2011-12 budget for the county and its special districts in place, as well as a resolution which will establish position allocations for the year.
County Administrative Officer Kelly Cox's memo to the board for the Wednesday meeting explains that recommended appropriations for the 2011-12 fiscal year total approximately $185,728,012, compared to $189,759,308 last year.
He said that $4 million drop from 2010-11 to 2011-12 is a result of the completion of one-time storm damage repairs and stimulus projects in last year's Road Division budget.
Cox said the proposed general fund appropriation is $52,520,097, down slightly from the $52,945,237 in the 2010-11 budget year.
In a bit of good budget news, Cox reported that the recommended budget the board approved in June anticipated a 5-percent decline in property tax revenues, but the final tax rolls showed only a 1.32-percent decline, a positive difference incorporated into the final recommended budget.
The budget also includes 901 permanent positions, according to Cox's report. He said several positions – which are either vacant or expected to be vacant soon due to retirements – are unfunded or eliminated in the new budget.
Once again, the county will remain in the black due to Cox's budgeting practices, which include using one-time revenues for one-time purposes. He proposes to follow that principle again as it “enables reserves to be increased and several special projects to be undertaken.”
The county is facing the loss of more than $1 million in redevelopment agency funds that will be transferred to the state because of legislation passed in the 2011-12 state budget, according to Cox's budget memo.
At the same time, he said the rest of the county's budget will cover water and wastewater system updates; $1 million for the Lakeport South Main Street/Soda Bay Road improvement project along with $100,000 to help in developing a water system; $1.3 million for water quality improvement projects to combat algae and aquatic weed issues in Clear Lake; infrastructure improvements to Lampson Field; and funding to assist in the establishment of a new visitor center in the Clearlake or Lower Lake.
“Although department heads and employees will have to continue closely monitoring and controlling their expenditures in order to live within tight budget appropriations, this will be a very workable budget that will enable the county to continue progressing in many areas,” Cox's memo explains.
He added, “The Recommended Budget does not include everything that we wish it could include but all things considered it is a very solid budget which many other counties would envy.”
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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