Hamilton County's administrator has presented an operating budget for the next year he says is smaller than what it could have been. Jeff Aluotto says county departments and offices requested $50 million more than the county expects to collect in 2025, but that gap has been closed.
“The first $20 million were really targeted reductions, directly to programs, staffing, that departments were recommending,” Aluotto says. “And I can say, Commissioners, having served in this seat since 2016, these were not fluff requests.”
Aluotto says some county jobs will go unfilled, and that will cut $16 million.
He presented his proposed 2025 all-fund and General Fund budgets to Hamilton County Commissioners Tuesday afternoon. Public safety and the courts account for 75% of proposed spending.
“Revenue growth is slowed. Yet the community demand, the community need, and spending pressures remain,” Aluotto says. “So while the budget is still designed to accomplish big important things, it does so in the context of an increasingly constrained revenue environment.”
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Aluotto is forecasting a 3% increase in revenue in 2025. He says this is after several years of 5% to 6% growth every year.
“We are seeing a significant slowdown in the growth of sales tax,” he says. “Maybe not entirely surprising when we think about the inflationary environment that we’ve been in over the past several years. This is not, from my perspective, a reason to panic.”
Aluotto says it just means county commissioners should be cautious when approving an operating budget. The first of two public hearings is Thursday at 1:15 p.m. at the Todd B. Portune Center for County Government.
The second is Dec. 3 at 6 p.m. at the Silverton Municipal Building.
