QuickTake:

Lane County officials face a structural deficit of $3 million for the upcoming fiscal year. About 60% of the county’s budget comes from state and federal dollars, putting the county at the whims of other policymakers.

In the past year, Lane County has reduced by 60 the number of beds in homeless shelters. 

Sheriff’s deputies on patrol duty are stretched thin, sometimes taking more than an hour to respond to emergencies as they travel from one side of the county to the other.

The county has consolidated its health clinics that serve low-income residents.

For county officials, these are symptoms that its budget isn’t growing fast enough to meet needs. County commissioners got a briefing Thursday, Jan. 15, about the financial landscape as they get ready to craft a new budget for 2026-27.

The reasons for the budget squeeze are often outside the county’s control. About 60% of the county’s $1.25 billion total budget comes from state and federal sources, which are growing increasingly unreliable.

The county’s general fund — its main operating account and the one over which it has the most control — is limited. It can increase only so much each year due to a 3% cap on how much property tax revenues can grow. Lane County managers brought these points home in the meeting with county commissioners about the budget outlook and the work that lies ahead.

For now, the county’s general fund forecast projects nearly $120 million of revenue for the upcoming fiscal year. Expenditures, though, are estimated at $122.8 million, leaving the county with a structural deficit of nearly $3 million.

“That’s the gap,” Lane County Administrator Steve Mokrohisky told commissioners.

Separately from that deficit, the county also needs $2.5 million annually for patrol deputies that serve rural west Lane County and the McKenzie River valley. The county increased patrols in those areas with one-time funding after the Holiday Farm Fire in 2020. But that money is running out and the county has already reduced coverage in the area.

County officials are exploring options for more public safety funding, but proposals for potential tax increases would not go to voters until 2027 — after the next annual budget is set. 

“I’m going to continue to focus on public safety,” Commission Chair Ryan Ceniga said, adding that he hears from constituents about lengthy emergency response times. “These are hard emails to respond to.”

The county’s budget has 11 departments, including the sheriff’s office, district attorney, health and human services and public works.

County departments need to submit budget requests by the end of February, followed by meetings with the county administrator in March to develop an overall budget proposal. The county’s budget committee will approve a budget in May, which goes to commissioners in June for a vote before the new fiscal year starts July 1.

The county’s current budget has the full-time equivalent of 1,944 workers across all departments. That’s down from a 10-year high of 2,081 in 2023.

The county’s workforce has steadily grown most years in the past decade; in 2015, it had 1,428 budgeted positions. The workforce increase includes staffing for projects like new health clinics in the county, a result of Medicaid expansion on the state level to make health care more accessible.

‘A little bit of whiplash’

Lane County Policy Director Steve Adams gave a high-level overview of the federal and state backdrop. The county’s federal and state funding covers a variety of services, from roads to health care.

In 2025, the Oregon Legislature passed a transportation package with a series of gas tax and fee increases. That source of road funding for the county is now in jeopardy. After Gov. Tina Kotek signed it, opponents gathered enough signatures to ask voters to approve or reject it in November. Kotek has asked lawmakers to repeal the law.

On the federal level, tariffs, a government shutdown and federal cuts are hitting areas like food benefits and Medicaid for the state’s vulnerable residents. 

The past year, 2025, was one of “very significant executive branch actions,” Adams told commissioners. 

An example of that uncertainty unfolded earlier this week.

Lane County, like other counties nationwide, scrambled to assess the damage and learn more after the Trump administration late Tuesday announced its cancellation of about $2 billion for mental health and drug addiction programs nationwide. 

Less than 24 hours later, the feds reversed course and kept the funding intact amid a public outcry.

“We had a little bit of whiplash,” Mokrohisky told commissioners.

The quick reversal signals a wider challenge for Lane County: The federal government is no longer the reliable source of revenue it once was. Such actions, Mokrohisky said, “can happen fast and it’s very difficult to predict.”

Ben Botkin covers politics and policy in Lane County. He has worked as a journalist since 2003, most recently at the Oregon Capital Chronicle, where he covered justice, health and human services and documented regional efforts to combat fentanyl addiction. Botkin has worked in statehouses in Idaho, Nevada, Oklahoma and, of course, Oregon. When he's not working, you'll find him road tripping across the West, hiking or surfing along the Oregon Coast.