A two-year contract between Douglas County and the association that represents its sheriff’s deputies and sergeants expires June 30, 2025.
The last time the Douglas County Sheriff’s Protective Association and the Sergeants Bargaining Unit contracts came up it was a nearly two-year struggle that ended up going to fact-finding.
In Nevada, associations representing public employees are not allowed to strike, but they can go to binding arbitration, which the county avoided in 2023.
On Thursday, Douglas County Chief Operating Officer Kathy Lewis and County Manager Jenifer Davidson conducted a first presentation for the 2025-26 budget.
Davidson said that 47 percent of the county’s budget is for public safety, which is pretty common among local governments.
Lewis said one of the key concerns for next year are increases in the Public Employee Retirement System for all county workers.
While other county employees will see a 3.25 percent increase, the increase for deputies and sergeants will be 8.75.
“That’s the biggest challenge we’re going to have,” Lewis said.
The Public Employment Retirement System board announced the new retirement rates on Dec. 2, 2024, to take effect on July 1.
Last year, the county froze seven positions in order to balance the budget and it doesn’t look like those are going to thaw this year.
One of the key budget objectives for the county is to keep compensation competitive, allocate funding for the expiring labor agreements and not to lose traction because of the increase in PERS.
Lewis said that the county has already collected $26.8 million in property taxes for the current fiscal year which ends June 30. That amounts to $26.8 million, of which $20.36 million goes into the general fund.
State consolidated taxes, which mostly comes from sales taxes provide a quarter of the county’s general fund budget. As of the end of October, the county has collected a third of the total or $10.3 million.
Room taxes brought in $8 million during the first third of the 2024-25 fiscal year or 36 percent of the budget. Occupancy and room taxes are not included in the general fund and are projected to raise $22.62 million during the entire year.
Lewis said that as of Dec. 31, 2024, the general fund is trending on target.
The fund is budgeted for $66.45 million in resources and has collected $33.62 million or 50.6 percent over the first six months. Expenditures for the first six months were $34.5 million of the $69.2 million total budgeted through June 30.
The goal for the county’s budgeters is to have 1.5-2 months worth of expenditures in reserves.
“That gives us two months to react until we’re completely out of money,” Lewis said.
There are going to be a lot of demands on the county’s resources this year including the construction of Muller Parkway, work on the justice center, and planning for increased investment in road maintenance, stormwater, the public safety radio system and a space needs analysis.