Canyon County Budget Meeting Set for Wednesday

Canyon County’s budget hearing will be held Wednesday, Aug. 13, at 6 p.m. in the Commissioners Meeting Room on the first floor of the courthouse in Caldwell.

The public is invited to attend the meeting and give testimony regarding the county’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.

At $78,894,812, the tentative budget is a 5 percent decrease over the Fiscal Year 2008 budget, and will decrease the levy rate by an estimated 1.5 percent. Only 48 percent of the budget will be funded by property tax dollars; the rest will come from fees, grants, etc. Among the larger items included in the tentative budget is $4.1 million, which will be used to purchase land adjacent to Pickles Butte Sanitary Landfill to be used both to expand the landfill and for Jubilee Park, where recreationists can continue to utilize the existing landscape for ATV, motorcycle, horseback riding and other activities. Money for the purchase comes from the landfill’s Enterprise Fund and not from tax dollars. Other large items in the budget are $2 million for construction of water and sewer lines to the new jail site on Highway 20/26; $1.25 million for the purchase of the Labor Department building; $615,000 to construct the Crossroads Museum, which will be funded by grants; $2.7 million for an E-911 digital trunked radio, also grant-funded, and $964,742 for employee merit increases and salary adjustments.

The largest portion of the budget, or 49 percent, goes to public safety, while welfare accounts for 4 percent, public works (weed control and solid waste) for 10 percent and judicial for 7 percent. General government, which includes the clerk’s office, commissioners, treasurer, assessor, courthouse, information technology and human resources, accounts for 23 percent of the budget.

Because the preliminary budget has already been signed, this budget cannot be increased at Wednesday’s meeting, but can be decreased if the commissioners choose.