Barb Halpin,  Boulder County.   Flood repair and recovery expenses continue to dominate expenditure requests in the annual budget.

The Boulder County Commissioners have adopted a budget of $426.6 million for 2016, down from an adopted budget of $438.8 million in 2015.

Flood recovery projects continue to account for a substantial portion of the budget, with flood-related expenditures expected to total $41.2 million in 2016. Anticipated revenues for these expenses have been allocated primarily to the Road & Bridge Fund, the General Fund, and the Disaster Recovery Fund.

Last year’s Ballot Issue 1A, the Flood Recovery Sales and Use Tax, is expected to yield nearly $9.3 million in 2016. The passage of 1A enables the county to continue to rebuild its damaged roads, bridges, trails, and other infrastructure in a timely manner. Total flood recovery spending is still on track to equal $217 million over a period of five or more years.

Revenue highlights for the 2016 budget:

Property tax collections will go up varied amounts in 2016 for all taxing entities due to a 19% increase in assessed property values in 2015 (evaluated in odd years). However, Boulder County is restricted by the 5.5% Property Tax Revenue Limit which constrains the amount of increase in general operating taxes that the county can collect.

Sales and Use Tax revenues, which are limited to expenditures explicitly approved by Boulder County voters, are projected to increase in 2016 by four percent over projected 2015 numbers. This increase is attributed to the continuing strong growth in the local economy.

$34.3 million in flood recovery reimbursements and grants from state and federal agencies in response to the 2013 Flood are projected for next year. These reimbursements, which are finally starting to flow back to Boulder County for repairs completed in 2013-15, will be applied to outstanding floor recovery balances.

Other highlights:

The Boulder County Recycling Center will receive a much-needed upgrade to bring it up-to-date with current market-driven demands. The commissioners have allocated $2.5 million in 2016 ($500,000 of which will come from the City of Boulder to accommodate their voter-approved Zero Waste programs) to install a fiber baler and cardboard screen, expand the pre-sort station, make improvements to existing infrastructure such as concrete, electrical, fire sprinklers and HVAC, and add a film plastic air system, and achieve a higher capture rate of cardboard.

All improvements are intended to help increase the facility’s processing capacity and keep more material out of the landfill.

The budget also includes $1.3 million in capital improvement projects at the Criminal Justice Center at 6th and Canyon in Boulder that will benefit the Clerk of the Courts and the Community Justice Services’ BEST program, both of which have been operating under cramped or ineffective working conditions.

Two smaller projects were also approved to improve outdated facilities at the jail.

The Sheriff’s Office will receive $378,472 for a body-worn camera system that is intended to enhance deputy safety, improve accountability, reduce liability, and help with public and media perceptions after a critical incident.

The 2016 budget also includes an expenditure in the amount of $100,000 to begin a 10-year countywide facilities evaluation to determine where outdated facilities exist and where growth in our resident population will put pressure on existing facilities over the next decade.

Transportation outlays, in addition to funding in the Road & Bridge Fund to pay for flood recovery repairs and the dedicated transportation sales tax projects, include $19.6 million for the maintenance and rehabilitation of county roads and bridges, including $1.3 million to repave the Linden Road “loop” as part of the commissioners’ annual commitment to addressing community subdivision roads. This year’s budget will also carry over $780,000 from the subdivision road rehabilitation partnership incentive fund.

The overall personnel package for 2016 includes the addition of 12.4 FTEs: 1.4 term and 11 permanent. Although several additional FTE requests were made by elected officials and departments, only those requests that were subsidized in whole or in part by an independent funding source (such as a grant) or a regulatory requirement were approved.

Commissioners certify county mill levy/property tax rate

The Commissioners certified a 2016 mill levy for the county of 22.624 mills (down from 24.794 in 2015), which is projected to generate property tax revenues of $153,625,755 (up from $141,821,638 in 2015 due to the substantial increase in this years’ assessed property values). The adopted levy includes a temporary mill levy credit in the amount of 2.181 mil.

Boulder County’s collection of property taxes represents roughly 28 percent of a property owner’s total average property tax bill. Other taxing entities that receive property tax revenues include (from 2015 data): school districts (54%), cities and towns (11%), and “other” fire, water and special districts (7%).

By state statute, the Board of County Commissioners must approve an annual budget by Dec. 15 for the next calendar year.