Inyo County leaders outline conservative budget approach, prioritize reserves and core services

Inyo County officials on Aug. 6 described a conservative, multistage process for producing the 2025–26 county budget that fronts core services and personnel costs, preserves reserves and treats one-time revenues as one-time spending. County Administrator Nate told the Board the CAO-recommended digital budget book will be published Aug. 29, with the first public hearing scheduled for Sept. 9 and final adoption set for Sept. 23.

Why it matters: Supervisors were shown projections that salaries and benefits are the county's largest cost center and are driving much of the year-to-year increase. County staff said continuing to build reserves and to avoid funding ongoing programs with one-time money will protect the county from shortfalls as state and federal funding streams shift.

Nate said the county's approach "is to use one-time money for one-time projects and to be very thoughtful about the fact that once that money is gone, generally, it doesn't come back." He described a multi-step calendar: a statutory rollover/status-quo budget in June, a CAO recommended budget published Aug. 29, a first hearing on Sept. 9 and final adoption on Sept. 23.

Budget staff presented early figures showing salaries and benefits roughly 60–70% of typical departmental budgets. Danelle, presenting preliminary numbers, said general-fund salaries and benefits increased about 9% in the CAO-recommended package compared with the prior board-approved budget; services and supplies rose more modestly.

The county is also using a new budget platform (OpenGov) to publish an interactive budget book and department-by-division pages, staff said. The tool is intended to improve transparency and let the public and board members drill down into revenues, expenditures and staffing counts.

On fund balance and reserves, Finance staff emphasized a conservative target. Amy explained that fund balance is a carryover of prior-year revenues and savings and that the county's long-term goal is to build reserves gradually rather than assume a high, variable fund balance each year. "Fund balance is unpredictable'and it's more like one-time funds," she said, adding that the Government Finance Officers Association recommendation is roughly two months of operating reserves and that Inyo currently holds approximately $12.8 million across general reserves and an economic stabilization account.

County staff laid out a menu of tools to close any remaining gap between requests and projected revenues: revise revenue assumptions; reprioritize or defer projects; hold or freeze vacant positions; use personnel contingencies; apply special revenues to matching expenditures; and, as a last resort, consider reductions to grants or contingencies. Officials said the target fund-balance use in the CAO recommendation remains $4.5 million.

The workshop included department-level requests and staffing proposals; staff flagged reclassification requests and restructures that they plan to review further and, where appropriate, hold for midyear implementation to ensure internal equity and to allow meet-and-confer processes with bargaining units. The board and staff agreed to continue the collaborative review ahead of the Sept. 9 hearing.

Ending: Staff will return with the CAO-recommended budget on Aug. 29 (digital) and a public hearing on Sept. 9; final adoption remains scheduled for Sept. 23. The county asked departments to continue refining proposals and said it will prioritize preserving core services and building reserves as more information arrives.