Finance projects $163.2M in available sources for FY27 but flags $14.5M as largely one-time timing variance

Chantel, a county finance presenter, told the Budget Evaluation Team on April 9 that her office now projects roughly $163.2 million in total sources available for FY27, but cautioned that roughly $14.5 million of that figure reflects a timing variance — receipts from April–June of the prior fiscal year that were not included in the September budget book.

"Last year we presented a $16 million figure," Chantel said, explaining that the county's final cash balance differed from the fund-balance number used in prior budget documents. She said finance staff treat the $14.5 million as largely one-time timing and carryover items, not recurring revenue to finance permanent spending.

Finance staff walked the committee through the components of the projection and noted two important caveats: (1) the $14.5 million timing variance is largely nonrecurring and should not be used as a structural funding source for recurring commitments, and (2) pending proposals at the state level (including SJR 39) pose downside growth risk that staff are modeling as part of contingency planning.

What happens next: finance staff said they will provide a line-item breakdown of the April–June receipts that produced the carryover, and will continue to update projections through the end of the fiscal year and into the September supplement process. Commissioners said they want conservative planning assumptions and asked staff to highlight any revenue items that should be treated as one-time versus ongoing before the board makes final FY27 recommendations.