The Gilpin County Board of County Commissioners has held their first-round of 2022 budget meetings with all departments in October. The county’s goal is to budget as closely as possible to its 2021 budget; but there will be increases in some of the operational expenses due largely to supply and demand across our country for materials and labor.

Gilpin County has not been able to keep pace or compete with the salaries offered in neighboring counties for the past two years, in large part due to the COVID-19 pandemic that affected the county’s revenue stream, depleting it by over $6,500,000. Employees have not had a raise in pay since 2019. The county commissioners hired Graves Consulting, Inc. to prepare a salary study using an Employers’ Council and other resources to match current salaries with county employees’ job descriptions, performance and length of service. In this manner, the county is desirous of recruiting and retaining the very best employees to serve Gilpin County residents.

Of note is that the elected officials of the county do not receive raises. Their salaries are set in state statute and only reflect a cost of living increase every four years.

The Gilpin County Commissioners will continue to work on the 2022 budget in consultation with the Finance Department and department directors to finalize the county’s budget on December 14, 2022. The budget will reflect their goals of creating a balanced budget, maintaining a reserve account, recruiting and retaining great employees and budgeting capital outlay funds for overdue maintenance of facilities, vehicles and county road maintenance.