The Grant County Court voted unanimously to approve and adopt an 88.7 million budget at its June 25 meeting. (Blue Mountain Eagle, file)

Judge, commissioners working to minimize future budget shortfalls

CANYON CITY — The Grant County Court voted unanimously to adopt and appropriate an $88.7 million budget at its June 25 meeting.

Grant County Treasurer, Julie Ellison, said the adopted budget is identical to that passed by the Grant County budget committee save for an $85,370 addition Grant County Emergency Management’s budget. Ellison said the adjustment to Grant County Emergency Management’s budget fell below the 10% threshold that would have triggered a public notice and hearings prior to a supplemental budget as required by Oregon Local Budget Law.

The court also voted to impose a tax rate of $2.8819 per $1,000 of assessed home value. The county budgeted for 78.04 full-time equivalent employees for the 2025-26 budget year.

Of that $88.7 million, a mere $2.06 million comes to the county in the form of property taxes and right around $800,000 comes in the form of payments in lieu of taxes. The county can spend $10 million of those funds on anything.

More than half of the county’s approved budget ($53.63 million) is in the road reserve fund. Ellison said funds within the road reserve fund cannot be used for any other purpose.

Despite the $88.7 million budget figure, the court pulled $1.5 million from its unappropriated funds to balance this year’s budget. Next year could see the court again have to dip into its unappropriated funds to balance its budget.

With just $2.2 million in unappropriated funds left, Ellison said the court is looking into strategies to minimize budget woes during next year’s budget season.

“The court is working on making some changes and finding more revenue sources,” she said.