Calling the budget “unprecedented,” Summit County manager Tom Fisher said the council will have a look at the budget each meeting until it’s adopted December 8th.
While Fisher was initially recommending a tax increase to help stave off inflation, the council directed him not to – saying they didn’t want to pit the tax increase against the $50 million open space bond that is on the ballot.
“We all are very aware that we're reacting to a lot of things in our community,” Fisher said, “and then projecting a lot of things to not only do the work - that's the basic service levels of our government, but to advance the strategic initiatives that that not only help us mitigate the effects of things that are happening to Summit County, but also help to project Summit County into the future.”
Estimated revenues for 2022 are up 10%, or about $6 million from the current year. Fisher added that the county did extremely well by reducing expenditures when the pandemic hit in the first quarter of 2020.
“And as a result,” Fisher said, “we are entering 2022 in an extremely good financial position, our fund balances are solid, in fact, trending above what we had projected wanted them to be, which gives this council, a lot of flexibility as well. And we've seen this reported not only in our local government, but all of our cities as well. Sales taxes are at record levels, and much better than we expected them to be moving into 2022.”
Fisher said he’s hoping the budget reflects the county council’s goals, including transportation and traffic, environmental stewardship, refining planning and development codes and improving public health services.
Council member Roger Armstrong said without diving deep into the budget yet, he thinks it will meet the council’s priorities. He also wants to see money available to do more visioning work, especially since the community has changed because of the pandemic allowing many to move here to now work remotely.
“It's bringing new pressures on the community," Armstrong said. “And I think we have to take a look at what our residents say about, and I've said it over and over again, a year and a half, we're talking about growth with a genome, every move that we make has to have has to be conscious of how that's going to move that needle."
Two public hearings will be held - December 1st and December 8th - before the budget is approved.
