COCONINO COUNTY — In their final meeting of the current Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24), the Coconino County Board of Supervisors (Board) voted unanimously to approve the final Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) Budget in the amount of $484,503,861.
The FY25 Budget includes strategic investments in public health and safety, flood control, forest restoration, operational capacity, and includes place holders to leverage federal funds to meet strategic and program goals across Coconino County operations.
The budget, effective July 1, is the culmination of an extensive process throughout the previous fiscal year that began with each County department forecasting their needs for the upcoming fiscal year and meeting with the County Manager’s Office. Once all needs assessments had been conducted, presentations were made to the Board during various special meetings adjacent to the Board’s regular meeting schedule. The 2025 budget once again sustains the County’s approach to long-term budget planning and continues our low property tax rate, one of the lowest in the state, to maintain service levels to the community while also considering the impact to the taxpayer.
Some important highlights of the County’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget include:
- It is a balanced budget.
- Using long-term financial planning strategies, the FY25 budget plans for the possibility of sales tax revenue fluctuations due to economic conditions.
- The FY25 budget complies with the County’s Constitutional Expenditure Limitations.
- Continues the County’s capital improvement plans, including Public Works projects funded by the voter-approved Road Maintenance Sales Tax, as well as Facilities upgrades to the Health and Human Services building, and the new Flood Control District/Emergency Operations building.
- Continues the significant investment of local revenue for necessary and ongoing flood mitigation and forest restoration projects; local dollars that can then be leveraged to receive Federal or State funding.
- Maintains expenditure capacity necessary for expending potential additional Federal or State funding awarded during the fiscal year.
Additionally, due to a combination of State-mandated limits on property tax revenue and an overall increase in property valuations, the primary property tax rate will decrease slightly. Secondary property tax rates for the Flood Control District and Public Health Services District will remain unchanged.
In order to avoid service reductions at the County’s public libraries, the Board is recommending an increase in the Library District’s secondary property tax levy from $0.2756 per $100 to $0.2956 per $100 of assessed property value.
“I want to thank our administration and staff for their tireless efforts to bring us a balanced budget that remains compliant with our expenditure limit and takes into account fluctuations in our economy while maintaining our level of service to the community,” said Judy Begay, Chair of the Board and Supervisor for District 4.
The final primary and secondary tax rates will be approved by the Board at their next scheduled regular meeting on Tuesday, August 13, 2024. The complete budget presentation from the June 25 meeting is available to review here: https://www.coconino.az.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_06252024-7082