On June 14, 2024, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to adopt the Fiscal Year 2024-2025 balanced budget, representing approximately $2.5 billion in total expenditures, a 10 percent increase from the prior fiscal year.
The final budget adds 43 full-time County positions for a total of 4,502 employees. The adopted budget is largely consistent with the prior fiscal year budget but adjusted for increased cost of operations and avoids any reductions to core county services.
“This is a balanced budget that maintains quality, essential services for Sonoma County families, individuals and communities,” said Supervisor David Rabbitt, chair of the Board of Supervisors. “State and federal funding make up the majority of the County’s budget. The fiscal decisions in the County’s budget will take care of our employees, safeguard public services and allow us to better navigate any future economic uncertainty.”
The Fiscal Year 2024-25 Adopted Budget supplements the Recommended budget with $4 million in ongoing discretionary funding to support department requests for program restorations and improvements, including:
Additionally, the Board allocated $27.6 million in one-time funding for departmental initiatives and Board priorities including:
Other funding allocations that complement the recommended budget include financial support to consolidate Probation Department leased office space; support for satellite Sonoma County service centers; funding for emergency response and engagement with underserved communities through Community Organizations Active in Disaster; housing program support for Legal Aid of Sonoma County; funding for a NAACP / Health Action Together community wellness hub; funding for the Russian Riverkeeper watershed cleanup; and financial support for the Samuel L. Jones Hall Emergency Shelter and the homeless shelter at the Guerneville Veterans building.
If any additional savings materialize at year end, priority will be given to elevating General Fund reserves from 10.2 percent to 11.2 percent of the operating budget, to ensure the County is in a strong position to respond to disasters or state/federal budget impacts or economic downturns. Any remaining funds will be divided in equal shares to prepay unfunded pension liabilities, increase General Fund reserves, and continue to accumulate resources towards financing a new County Government Center.
This fiscal prudence is especially important given uncertainty around future revenues. Tax revenue, which makes up the largest share of the discretionary General Fund, has slowed following the immediate post-Covid period. Property tax revenue makes up almost 90 percent of General Fund tax revenue and more than two-thirds of all tax revenue received by the County.
Property tax growth is heavily dependent on property sales, as growth is otherwise capped at 2 percent under the state constitution. With the rise in interest rates, property sales have significantly decreased, resulting in a 35 percent reduction in documentary transfer tax revenue between FY 2021-22 and FY 2022-23, which indicates that future property tax growth will also slow.
As part of the County’s commitment to transparency, open government, and citizen engagement, more detailed information on the annual operating budget is available at this interactive website:
https://sonomacounty.budget.socrata.com/.
All County of Sonoma budget reports and materials are available here:
https://sonomacounty.ca.gov/administrative-support-and-fiscal-services/county-administrators-office/budget-and-operations/budget-reports.