County Manager Jenifer Davidson before her Thursday night presentation at the Douglas County Community & Senior Center.
Photo by Kurt Hildebrand.
On Thursday, County Manager Jenifer Davidson gave a preview of the county’s general fund budget and shared some of the challenges ahead with an audience of around 60 at the Douglas County Community & Senior Center.
There was a lot of data presented at Thursday’s State of the County address by County Manager Jenifer Davidson.
The $67.05 million general fund made up 43 percent of the county’s $158.8 million budget this year and pays for most of the employees, including those in the Sheriff’s Office, Clerk-Treasurer’s Office, Assessor’s Office and the other county departments.
Last year saw the county eliminate eight positions and removed one-time expenditures to balance the general fund.
“That resulted in significant reduction in our operational costs moving forward and set us up for success in terms of the economy moving forward,” she said. “But also we needed to make sure we were rightsizing the budget because we’re about to take on a pretty heavy lift in the form of the justice center.”
Site work has been underway on the $50 million project off Buckeye Road in Minden, with completion estimated in fall 2026. One of the means to pay off the bonds that should go to market this month are sales tax revenues.
Davidson said that the county’s current budget year is coming in right at projections, thanks to lower than average sales tax revenue.
“Our sales tax collections last year fell short of the county’s projections,” she said. “We collected about $700,000 less than we had anticipated which required us to do some course correcting right about the mid-year point.”
In order to stay on course, county officials sought help from department heads.
“We approached each of our departments and asked them to hit the panic button, stopping spending and ensuring we were going to make it through the fiscal year without any major concerns,” she said. “Luckily that shortfall only $700,000 and we were able to nip it in the bud pretty quickly.”
Since the 2023-34 fiscal year started, the county receives the sales tax it generates, rather than being guaranteed a certain rate based on population.
“However, that means this revenue source is a little bit more volatile,” she said. “It is now subject to the fluctuating habits of the economy. We all know the economy is a little bit uncertain right now. We’re keeping a close eye on it because it makes up approximately 25 percent of our general fund operating revenue.”
She said property, room and gas taxes appear to be trending on target.
“Room tax is not part of general fund,” she said. “We saw a significant jump in room tax in 2020, surprisingly during the COVID era, which was the opposite of what we thought would occur. People flocked in droves to the Lake because they wanted to get outdoors, which meant that Douglas County benefited significantly from those choices of visitors to our community.”
That’s how the county managed to bank around $5 million in room tax reserves, of which $2.9 million is going to purchase Carson Valley Cinemas.