It was another sparsely-attended final budget hearing for Nevada County Supervisors Tuesday morning. They gave their conceptual approval to the 369-point-eight-million dollar spending plan, with formal adoption scheduled for their final June meeting of the month next Tuesday. In his presentation, Deputy County CEO, Martin Polt, said there’s just a slight drop in the General Fund, or 700-thousand dollars, for a total of 39-point-1 million dollars. General Funds have no spending restrictions. And he also noted that, despite major deficits in the state and federal budgets this year, there are not expected to be any major impacts on county services for the new fiscal year, which begins July first…

click to listen to Martin Polt

ARPA refers to the American Rescue Plan Act, which helped governments and businesses adversely impacted by the pandemic. Polt says county revenues were up 27-million dollars, or eight-percent, compared to a year ago. That includes better-than-expected property tax revenues, along with a 30-percent climb in cannabis tax revenues. Supervisor Heidi Hall was impressed with the county’s fiscal outlook, despite state and federal uncertainties…

click to listen to Heidi Hall

But Supervisor Hardy Bullock, a member of the Budget Committee, also mentioned that current staffing levels may make it a challenge to respond quickly to emergencies and provide services related to annual priorities identified by the Board.