County's 2027 budget would draw $2.6 million from reserves

Montezuma County’s proposed 2027 budget would take $2.6 million out of the general fund’s reserves to balance it, and at that rate of spending the county has about three years before the fund drops to the minimum the commissioners set for themselves in 2025, the board was told on Tuesday.

Graphic: Cortez Current. Source: Montezuma County 2027 proposed budget presentation to the Board of County Commissioners, October 13, 2026

The figures came from Robert Dobry, who the county’s own agenda lists as presenting the 2027 proposed budget. The agenda gives no title for him, so the Cortez Current is not assigning one.

The county published the budget document itself on Tuesday. That document is a line-item spreadsheet with no written budget message, so the presentation is the first public account of what the county thinks the numbers mean.

The reserve problem

General fund revenues are proposed at $15,111,232 against expenditures of $17,715,673. The gap — just over $2.6 million — comes out of the fund’s balance.

In May 2025 the commissioners passed a resolution setting their reserve goal at one year of general fund operating expenses, counted without grants, capital or conservation trust fund spending. On the 2025 audited financials, Dobry said, one year of operating expenses is $14.2 million.

At the current level of spending, he told the board, the county has three years before it reaches that floor. Before 2029, he said, the county will either need community support for additional funding to keep existing services going, or will have to make significant cuts to services to balance the budget.

One commissioner said the squeeze is already visible. He said there is a county facility next door where nobody works a 40-hour week — staff are on 35 hours because of earlier reductions made to balance the budget — and that it sounds as though it will get worse. He noted that next year’s draw would be larger than $2.6 million because costs are rising, that the assessor has already told the board to expect lower revenue, and that the county has not yet received its insurance numbers for next year.

On the revenue side, the proposed budget reflects a decrease in revenue from Kinder Morgan that the assessor has previously discussed with the board. It does not include revenue for either a Dolores contract or a Ute Mountain Ute contract for the sheriff’s office, because neither is complete for 2027; Dobry said those would be added during the budget process or handled with a budget adjustment early next year, as the county did this year for the Dolores contract.

Staffing

The proposed budget adds a deputy assessor position and moves an information technology position and a veterans department position from part time to full time. The higher cost of the veterans position is offset by an increase in state reimbursement. The budget also eliminates a part-time public information position in the administration department.

It carries the state-mandated salary increases for officials who are elected or re-elected this fall and begin new terms in January, and a 3% increase in payroll and fringe costs across every department and fund with staff.

Dobry described that 3% as a placeholder — a pool of money to work with while the county implements a pending payroll study. He said the final figures are unlikely to be smooth across departments and funds, because individual positions will move depending on where the study says they should sit, and that those adjustments will be made before the final budget is presented.

The sheriff’s office

The sheriff’s office, including the jail, accounts for 43.4% of the total proposed general fund budget.

The budget funds the software the sheriff’s office asked for, including upgrades to its Axon contract, Cellebrite and Magnet Forensics, which Dobry called a significant increase to its software budget. A forensics computer hardware upgrade and replacement rifles for patrol are in the capital budget rather than the general fund.

The sheriff’s office asked for four additional staff — two in the jail and two in patrol — and for a K9 program. None of those are in the proposed budget. The budget does not include any future agreement with the Fraternal Order of Police bargaining unit.

Capital projects

The capital fund is proposed at $1,923,446. The largest single item is $850,000 for the county’s parking lot project, which was budgeted at about $438,000 for 2026; when it went out to bid this summer, Dobry said, the bids came in significantly higher. The Cortez Current reported in September that the project had been delayed.

Other capital items include $593,521 as the county’s match for a Region 9-led fiber project, which is only spent if the grant is received; $100,000 carried forward for landscaping at the combined courts; $92,500 for networking switches and a firewall upgrade; $89,625 for the third year of the assessor’s flyover project; $66,000 to finish a camera and access control project at Annex 1, the fairgrounds and the landfill; $63,200 to replace the sheriff’s patrol rifles, which Dobry said date from the 1980s; $35,000 to upgrade the commissioners’ media room; $14,500 to replace a weed department vehicle, with the current one to be sold; $13,100 for forensics computer hardware; and $6,000 for a child support conference room upgrade requested by social services.

The other funds

Road and bridge is proposed at $5,802,590 in spending. It includes $270,000 of capital originally budgeted for a mower and attachments, a used water truck and tank, a tire machine, a balancer and road counting equipment — some of which, Dobry noted, may be bought this year instead, in which case the money would go to the next tier of equipment the department needs. It also carries $380,000 for special road projects covering 12 miles of single-layer work, and raises the line for culvert repair and replacement from $20,000 to $80,000, a change made late in the process after culverts were identified as a priority.

Public health is proposed at $2,330,800, with the main change from 2026 being the addition of the EPIC grant on both the revenue and expense sides. Social services is proposed at $19,820,578 in spending, and the senior and transportation fund at $665,519.

The emergency telephone authority fund raises personnel support to $127,500 — one and a half positions rather than one — to offset user fees. Dobry said he and staff had checked that the higher figure is sustainable in future years even with the large capital costs expected in 2030 and 2031, rather than spending a large amount this year and being unable to provide the support later.

The lodgers tax fund is proposed at $275,000 in revenue and the same in spending, prepared at the current lodging tax rate. If voters approve the county’s ballot measure this fall, Dobry said, the figures could be supplemented on both sides for 2027 in work with the commissioners and the lodgers tax committee.

The law enforcement authority fund is proposed at $711,587 on each side, with revenue falling for 2027 because of the same lower Kinder Morgan tax collection affecting other funds. The landfill enterprise fund is proposed at $1,810,164 in spending, including $170,000 of capital for a replacement mower and a replacement motor grader blade. The conservation trust fund shows $167,500 in revenue against $314,585, including $111,000 as the county’s match for a congressionally directed spending grant to upgrade the upstairs rooms of the main barn building at the fairgrounds and insulate the goat and sheep barns.

What happens next

A copy of the proposed budget is available in the commissioners’ room at the county offices and on the county website.

The county has scheduled time at next week’s commissioners’ workshop for departments that want to present more information or discuss requests that were not included in the proposed budget.

Final adoption of the budget, including all budget resolutions, is set for December 8, 2026. Dobry said the county would notify the community if that changes.

The meeting is on the county’s website, which also carries the agenda, and the recording is on YouTube. What the board decided at the same meeting is covered in a separate story.