The Park County commissioners have made cuts to departmental budgets and slashed grants to outside organizations in order to provide a raise to employees in the coming fiscal year. 

Park County is set to spend $37.6 million in the general fund in its proposed budget between this month and June 30, 2026 — roughly $4 million less than last year. Commissioners nearly halved the amount of money that they’re spending on capital projects.

The county received less revenue from a couple of areas, including roughly $2 million less in revenue from property taxes for its 12 mill levy due to state lawmakers cutting residential property taxes by 25% overall, with a larger 50% reduction for longtime homeowners.

Commissioners were also worried about potential cuts in federal funding. However, the county actually received a slight bump when its Payment in Lieu of Taxes — meant as compensation for counties with large amounts of federal land — came in at more than $2.7 million.

That allowed for the county’s budget cuts to not be too drastic.

Approving raises

At the behest of department heads, the draft budget includes a little over 3% raise on average for employees, which will cost around $425,000.

“We’ve got to make employees a priority,” County Engineer Brian Edwards told the commissioners, explaining that he’s lost good, veteran workers in recent months.

“When you start really comparing to cities, the private sector, and then go to statewide equivalent positions, if you really go through and look at that, we’re all way behind,” Edwards said, adding, “We’re not keeping up.”

He offered to cut as much of his roughly $1.2 million hot mix
budget — used for road maintenance — as needed to provide a raise at least close to the roughly 4.5% deemed to be the cost of living increase for the region. 

Commissioners ultimately settled on a 25 cent per hour cost of living adjustment for all employees while giving each department the funds to raise each employee two steps in the pay scale; department heads can divide that money equally or give some employees larger raises and others smaller or no bumps, depending on their individual performance.

The county is also spending roughly $$173,437 more on health insurance for its employees in this budget as costs continue to rise.

Absorbing that extra cost and making the way for raises meant the commissioners had to find more cuts.

Working the budget

Commissioners heard from special boards and organizations over the last couple of months and from county departments last week before hashing out the numbers at a July 1 work session.

Departments leaders initially trimmed their budgets to get to a point where, without any hike in pay, the budget was just about balanced. But, commissioners wanted to go back to the cutting room to ensure employees could get at least a small bump in pay to aid retention. Park County Undersheriff Andy Varian noted that past raises had been very good in helping to retain veteran deputies.

Commissioner Lloyd Thiel said a cost of living raise in the FY26 budget should be paired with a hiring freeze, as has been done in the past, to keep payroll spending from ballooning too much while still working to retain employees. 

Thiel also thanked departments for “sharpening their pencils” in their budget requests due to the drop in revenue.

Certain departments, including the library and sheriff’s office, like road and bridge offered further cuts to help balance the budget. That included Sheriff Darrel Steward holding off on buying dash cams (though there is money in the budget to prepare the vehicles for the camera installations in the future).

Cutting special requests

Thiel and the rest of the commission also wielded a sharp pencil when it came to the special funding requested by outside organizations. The bulk of these groups had their funding cut at least 25% from the year before. The Powell, Cody and Meeteetse senior centers and groups with certain grant matching requirements had their funding left intact, while some groups, such as economic development organizations, were cut to zero. 

Powell Economic Partnership, Forward Cody, Meeteetse Visitor Center, Cody Yellowstone Air Improvement Resources and Yellowstone Regional Airport — which collectively received $51,000 from the county last year — are set to get nothing.

Commissioners identified groups with more established fundraising abilities or other major funding sources as being more able to handle a larger reduction in county help this budget cycle. 

Of course, the concern is a further decrease in revenue could come if voters pass a constitutional amendment ballot question in November of 2026 that would reduce residential property taxes by 50%. 

Commission Chair Dossie Overfield had predicted that the county would be able to make it through this year’s cuts, but said a similar or greater reduction in the next year or two would cause a lot of issues. 

Edwards, who presented the county road and bridge and landfill departments in late June, struck a similar tone. He proposed a smaller budget and provided options for more cuts if needed, saying some things could be put off for a year. However, he and others said cutting services for a second year would cause more problems.

Edwards noted the department is able to make cuts this year because of how well the department has been funded in years past, but further cuts would cause more issues and, as he told the Tribune in a later interview, “In the long term, reducing expenditures (personnel, equipment, materials) to the road and bridge budget over a period of years will be noticed and felt by the traveling public. This is a painful reality. With escalating costs of labor, equipment, and road materials a steady sustainable plan for continued investment in our road and bridge infrastructure is not only important, it is essential.”

Commissioner Kelly Simone brought up the specter of the 2026 amendment ballot question.

“So I would just caution us to consider that if we push [required maintenance off], we may be in a different, more difficult, challenging situation next year, depending on what the voters decide,” Simone said.

In the end, Edwards said only a little over $40,000 of the hot mix fund he had offered from his proposed road and bridge hot mix funds to balance the budget.

The commissioners will present the budget at a public hearing at 6 p.m. Monday at the Park County Courthouse before approving a final version the next day.

Editor's note: This story has been edited to reflect the actual increase in health insurance cost for employees.