INYO PRESERVES STATUS QUO
Inyo County discovered an extra $438,000 in between the couch cushions and promptly put the windfall in its piggybank.
That was the big reveal at the Sept. 8 Inyo County supervisors meeting, where the board approved a preliminary 2026-27 budget.
The “extra” cash came in the form of $4.938 million in unspent funds leftover from the previous fiscal year. The budget team was counting on using $4.5 million of that “fund balance” to balance, literally, this year’s budget.
The supervisors quickly and with little discussion parked the excess in three “savings” accounts: $150,000 in General Reserves; $150,000 in Economic Stabilization (a fancy name for a reserve fund); and $138,000 in Contingencies. That cash infusion pushed the total in the two reserve accounts over $13 million with about $800,000 in the Contingency account.
Supervisor Trina Orrill made the motion to take a “conservative” approach and use the extra cash to “build up our reserves” because the coming year offered “so many unknowns” regarding state and federal funding and potential obligations, and tourism.
The budget team, Denelle Carrington, acting CAO, Kelsey Gonzalez, Budget Analyst, and Amy Shepherd, Auditor/Controller who walked the board through the numbers.
For 2026-27, the county General Fund will total $104 million, with $99,500 in revenue, thus the balancing act with the fund balance. The non-General Fund budget (which includes the General Fund) is also balanced with remaining fund balances and comes to $181 million.
Some high points.
The budget team and supervisors rejected department head requests for 17 employee reclassifications (which usually come with higher pay) and two new positions. The county went through a re-classification and pay study last year which reset salaries, and it wants to see the results of those moves. Salaries and benefits will take up $67 million of the General Fund budget (65%) in 2026-27. A 3% COLA increased labor costs by about 7%.
Retiree health and pension benefits went up by 10-13%, adding up to $2.6 million. Retiree costs are expected to increase in the coming years because of a “generational shift” since about 25% of the current county workforce currently eligible for retirement.
Overall employee medical insurance costs rose about 12%, a slight drop from last year’s 15% hike.
Inflation in “services and supplies” slowed in 2025-26 to about 2.6%, compared to about 7% the previous year.
Tax revenues came in higher than anticipated in 2025-26, but the county is taking a conservative approach to budgeting tax revenue this year.
Property tax receipts ticked up by $1 million, or 5.4%, primarily from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. LADWP makes up 48% of the entire secured property tax roll, and is mandated to increase its property tax payments by 4% this year under terms of the Phillips formula. That rate is adjusted each year based on inflation.
The Transient Occupancy Tax and “other taxes” increased last year to $5.3 million, the highest on record, but this year’s budget plan calls for just $4.9 million of revenue from those taxes because they don’t know if that increase will be sustainable.
Sales tax revenue is budgeted at about $2 million, even though last year it totaled $2.3 million.
This will be the first year Inyo County’s bank account will see the direct benefit of Reefer Madness. The county has collected cannabis taxes for five years, but now they will be separated out from other tax receipts. The county expects about $250,000 in pot taxes.
The biggest single revenue source is still “aid from other government agencies: state and federal grants,” which account for 41% of the General Fund budget, at about $38 million.
The budget overview presents the broad outlines of where the General Fund money is spent.
Public Protection, including the Sherrif, Probation, Jail, etc., is the largest expense category, costing $38 million, about 37% of the General Fund; General Government costs $29 million, about 38%; health and sanitation make up 16% at $17 million; public assistance, $15 million and 15%. Dragging up the rear are recreation and cultural services, just 2% and $2 million; and education (museum and library), a little over $1 million, which is 1%.
Gluttons for numerical punishment can find the entire, 600-plus page 2026-27 budget document, which has details on 20 departments and 168 budget units, at the Inyo County webpage (www.inyocounty.us) under Administration.
