The Stanislaus County Chief Executive Office has released the 2024 Adopted Budget, pending the Board of Supervisors’ approval. The recommended budget will serve as the definitive plan for Year Two of the budget period ending on June 30, 2024.
Over the past 10 years, the County budget has expanded to support the growing needs of the community, increasing by over $500 million. In recent years, revenue has exceeded initial expectations, affording the County the opportunity to build a healthy reserve and implement strategies to leverage those savings in support of local parks, libraries, and aging County facilities.
However, as the County worked to solidify an operational plan for the Fiscal Year 2024, staff took into account changes that could have a significant impact on the County’s ability to meet the needs of the community.
“Navigating change is a continual exercise in agility, patience, and wisdom. Directing an organization through change is a formidable task, and an awesome responsibility,” stated Stanislaus County Chief Executive Officer Jody L. Hayes.
The County’s approach to the 2024 Adopted Budget relied on a tiered evaluation of requests, officials said, with a primary focus on supporting operational needs for existing service levels.
To maximize all available resources, the County pledged nearly $500,000 in one-time and $3.1 million in ongoing Discretionary Revenue funding to support service level growth in General Fund departments. Combined with externally funded service level changes another $29.6 million is recommended to the budget, for a total increase of $113.5 million over the 2024 Proposed Budget. If approved as recommended, the 2024 Adopted Budget of $1.73 billion will support 18 additional full-time staff across four Board priority areas for a total of 4,866 authorized positions.
This approach allows staff to continue to move forward with key strategies and initiatives to improve County infrastructure, firmly support existing service levels, and carefully expand where critically needed.
“We feel this is a wise use of our limited resources and ensures our capacity to meet the needs of the community today, tomorrow, and well into the future,” said Hayes. “Our residents deserve this caliber of fiscal responsibility; our vision, mission, values, and priorities demand it.”
In April of 2023, a new set of values that describe how the organization works to achieve its mission of “We Build Community” were unveiled: We believe each person matters, We work everyday to earn people’s trust, We are good partners, We encourage innovation, and We deliver Results.
Hayes noted that while it is often said that it takes a village to raise a child; it takes a strong foundation constructed of a targeted vision, mission, values, and priorities to guide an organization to success and longevity.
The 2024 Adopted Budget will be presented to the Board of Supervisors for consideration and approval in a public hearing at the regularly scheduled Board of Supervisors’ meeting beginning at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 26. The 2024 Adopted Budget is now available for public review on the County’s website at www.stancounty.com/budget and a hard copy will be available for viewing in the Clerk of the Board’s Office on the sixth floor of Tenth Street Place in Modesto.
