On June 7, the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors approved CAO Don Ashton’s Recommended Budget for fiscal year 2021-22. The recommended budget contains $681.3 million in spending, a 5 percent decrease from the 2020-21 adopted budget attributed to the completion of major transportation projects and federal coronavirus funding received in 2020-21. General Fund spending for 2021-22 is $337.36 million, a decrease of 3.2 percent from the 2020-21 adopted budget. The number of authorized staff positions is roughly stable (1925 to 1919).
Prior to the Board’s vote, Ashton addressed a special meeting of the Taxpayers Association to provide an overview of his recommendations. While he noted that the budget is in good shape now, future revenue uncertainty is a concern. “We have no control over what our revenue are going to be”, he said, “We make our best guess and we have to live within those revenues.” Property Tax, Sales Tax, and Transient Occupancy Tax revenues are all subject to external forces and difficult to accurately project. Ashton also mentioned pension liabilities, facility and road maintenance needs, and inflation as ongoing challenges.
Ashton said the budget includes funding for several Board of Supervisors’ priorities. These include $6.5 million for deferred maintenance at county owned buildings, $3 million in discretionary revenue set aside for road maintenance (in addition to other dedicated sources such as gas tax), $936,713 for expected pension cost increases, $645,800 to fire districts to offset the impacts of tourism, and $500,000 to begin replacing the snow removal fleet. The budget includes $10 million in General Reserve and $6 million in General Fund Contingency to address unforeseen expenses during the year.
The approval of the Recommended Budget is not the final step in the annual budget process. In September the Board will consider and approve the Adopted Budget for fiscal year 2021-22 after more complete information is available about the end of fiscal year 2020-21 which continues until June 30.
