County Financial Updates and Information
Welcome to Coconino County’s Link to All Things Financial…
We are glad that you are interested in Coconino County's financial information and hope these easy links (see highlighted words below) will help you easily navigate our complex financial landscape.
Maybe the best place to start is a General Overview of the County’s financial history, its current financial status, and what the County has done and is doing to manage during these very challenging times. The General Overview provides basic information about the County’s approach to budgeting, financial planning and fiscal management. In addition to this General Overview, we suggest you glance at a set of illustrations that provide additional information about County property taxes.
As expalined in the General Overview, the County Board of Supervisors uses a three-prong approach to address the current financial challenges. This three-prong approach involves:
1) Reducing County costs and expenses,
2) Carefully using reserve funds, and
3) Where possible, increasing revenue.
The County has reduced General Fund use by over $11 million (County's General Fund operating budget is $52 million) to address state program cuts and cost shifts to the County as well as lower revenues. The reduction in General Fund use includes over 100 frozen positions, eliminating positions, lapse funds, cost cuts, and other measures. In addition, the County has used funds set aside for recessions when revenues are down to help with balancing the budget over the past two years.
The Board of Supervisors also established a Public Health Services District this past December (2009) to address the dramatic reduction in local tax revenues, the significant cuts to State funding of programs for counties, and cost shifts from the State to the County. The new district will be funded by a new property tax. Here is how this new tax will impact your home or business' property taxes, and why the County acted now. (A media release outlines the Board’s action). The Board considered a great deal of information before they made their decision to establish the Public Health Services District, you can see the Board Presentations here.
If you are looking for information about the County’s upcoming Fiscal Year Budget (July 1, 2010 – June 30, 2011), then you came to the right spot! The annual Strategic Budget Process involves a number of steps but the first step for Board involves setting the Strategic Priority Areas for the County. With these priorities in mind, the County Manager presents a recommended budget to the Board of Supervisors. A media release describes the highlights of the County Manager’s Recommended Budget for this coming fiscal year. Then the Board meets with each County Department and other organizations that receive County funds. You can start with the FY 2011 Budget at a Glance, which is based on the County Manager’s recommended budget – it is, "just the numbers please!" You might also want some context to better understand the numbers, so here is the introductory presentation made to the Board on May 10, 2010 as they started this year’s budget process.
After much review and discussion, the Final Budget will be adopted by the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, July13, 2010 at 6:00 pm. The County property tax rates will be adopted for the coming tax year on Tuesday, August 10, 2010 at 6:00 pm.
Coconino County FY11 Budget Adoption Schedule: All Meetings are Public.
All Meetings will be at the Coconino County Administrative Center located at 219 E. Cherry Avenue in downtown Flagstaff.
If you want to get into the real nitty-gritty of County finances – there is a lot more financial information, such as:
If there is still additional information you are interested in reviewing, then please visit the County Finance Department’s Web Page or contact Sandi Schulz, the County’s Chief Financial Officer, at Email.