Marin County supervisors are nearing a vote on a proposed $814.9 million budget for next fiscal year.The proposed budget, which would take effect July 1, constitutes a 4% increase in spending compared with the 2023-24 fiscal year.
“It is a long journey getting here,” said Josh Swedberg, the county’s budget director. “We started this in December. We held March public budget workshops. We came back to your board in April to provide our updated fiscal projections.”
Another round of hearings on the budget will be held beginning June 24 before a final vote to approve the document on June 26.
As previously projected, Swedberg said the final budget provides supervisors with the latitude to spend about $21 million on new, one-time projects.
Before accepting the proposed budget, supervisors stated their desire to communicate to the public that the $21 million isn’t mad money.
“We’ve had lots of comments over the last many months about $21 million sitting around,” Supervisor Katie Rice said.
Save Our City, a group battling to block a 74-residence affordable housing project at 825 Drake Ave. in Marin City, recently suggested that the county use the money to buy the property and turn it over to residents.
“The County has announced it has an unexpected budget surplus of $21 million,” the organization said in a written statement. “What better use of funds than to allow Marin City residents to determine for themselves what happens in Marin City?”
Supervisor Stephanie Moulton-Peters said, “We are seen as someone who has a bottomless pit of funding, and we don’t. We need to find a way to communicate that whenever we can.”
“I would suggest we find a way through our budget process to communicate the portion of the budget that is already dedicated to mandated programs and services,” Moulton-Peters said, “as a way to give some perspective over what we actually have discretion over.”
County supervisors only control a portion of the budget. About 35% of the county’s revenue comes from the state and federal government and is mandated to be spent on specific services.
The county’s general fund budget for fiscal year 2024-25, which excludes expenditures for services mandated by the state, grew to $618 million, a 4% increase compared to the prior year.
The proposed budget contains recommendations for spending all of the $21 million. County managers are suggesting that supervisors spend the biggest chunk of the money, $5.1 million, on making capital improvements to Veterans Memorial Auditorium on the Civic Center campus.
During budget workshops in March, David Speer, the county’s facilities planning director, estimated that the county will need to invest between $144 million and $209 million on its facilities over the next 10 years. Of that amount, $60 million to $84 million will be required for Civic Center facilities and $84 million to $125 million for a new fire headquarters and station upgrades.
Other big-ticket recommendations for spending the $21 million in the proposed budget include: $2 million for community and West Marin infrastructure; $2 million to replace the county’s property tax system; $1.5 million to boost the state budget reserve; $1.5 million for mandated stream and trash capture protections; $1.25 million for homelessness; $1.25 million for participatory budgeting; and $1 million as matching funds for local sea-level rise projects.
While there is no recommended spending on the 825 Drake Ave. project, county managers are suggesting that supervisors spend $250,000 to help fund a study to evaluate the feasibility of erecting a soundwall between Highway 101 and Marin City.
Save Our City isn’t the only group with its eye on the $21 million.
At the June 4 meeting, Erin Hawkins, Community Action Marin’s vice president of programs, made a pitch for $293,000 to help low-income families who can’t afford their energy bills.
Hawkins said there was a 26% reduction in federal funding for energy assistance in 2024, despite an average increase of 20% per household in energy costs.
“We are here speaking for over 360 households,” Hawkins said. “You can help keep the lights on and the power on for daily needs like refrigeration, cooking, and homework after dinner.”
Swedberg said on Monday that the county is still evaluating the request.
Also during the meeting, Annie O’Connor, executive director of the Bolinas Community Land Trust, thanked supervisors for allocating $622,000 during the 2023-24 fiscal year to help provide emergency housing for approximately 60 people, most of them low-income Latino residents who had been living in substandard conditions for years in Bolinas.
“I want to be really clear that we’re committed to fighting the displacement of all BIPOC and low-income families and individuals in each of our communities,” O’Conner said, referring to Black, Indigenous and people of color.
County managers are recommending that supervisors spend $500,000 of the $21 million on addressing substandard rural housing.