Updated Friday, June 27.

The Marion County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to approve next year’s budget that will reduce county spending by almost $36 million.

Commissioners met Wednesday to adopt next year’s $743 million budget, which is a 4.6% decrease from the current budget. Cuts in vacant jobs, the end of federally funded projects and the closure of the Reworld incinerator in Brooks are big factors in the smaller budget. 

“Our budget just got $40 million dollars smaller this year from last year and we’re not in crisis,” Marion County Commissioner Colm Willis said during Wednesday’s meeting. “We’re not in crisis because this was planned, we spent one-time money on one-time things, we’re spending within our means.”

Watch Wednesday’s meeting here.

Original story below.

Marion County officials are planning to decrease county spending by almost $36 million in the coming year by cutting vacant jobs in its mental health and parole programs.

The proposed $743 million budget, which would take effect July 1, cuts $35.7 million from county spending, a 4.6% decrease.

The county’s general fund, which makes up a quarter of the budget, will decrease by about $3.7 million compared to the current budget. Next year’s general fund will be $148.7 million, a 2.4% decrease.

The need to cut spending is driven by the end of several large federal grants, including Covid relief money that has supported major infrastructure projects and other county operations over the past few years. Federal money to support wildfire recovery projects is also decreasing as projects to recover from the 2020 Santiam Canyon fires are completed.

In total, federal spending is decreasing by $12.3 million.

The closing of the Reworld incinerator in June also meant some jobs were no longer needed.

Rising wages and employee costs mean it costs the county more year over year to keep the same employees.

The Marion County Board of Commissioners will vote to adopt next year’s proposed budget Wednesday, June 25. The meeting will take place at 9 a.m. and will stream live on Capital Community Media’s YouTube channel.

County officials plan to cut almost 44 vacant positions, which will help the county keep up with increasing benefits and salaries.

The county is also dipping into savings, spending $18.8 million of its reserves, nearly 40%. The budget would also cut nearly $18 million from its ending fund balance, the savings left over to carry into next year.

Both decreases are due to spending one-time funding to finish projects largely funded by federal grants, county spokesman Jon Heynen said.

The Marion County Budget Committee proposed the budget during a May 29 meeting, which is available to watch online. The committee is made up of the three county commissioners and three appointed volunteers who are county residents and not employees.

READ IT: Marion County 2025-26 budget

The county’s public works department has the largest portion of the budget, at $219 million. Behind public works are the health department with $117.7 million and the Marion County Sheriff’s Office with $97.6 million.

Health department

A majority of the full-time jobs proposed to be cut next year are in the county’s Health and Human Services Department. 

The department will cut about 26 positions across divisions and dissolve its intensive services program, which provided behavioral health services to people and families with complex recovery needs.

The cut positions are in county mental health services and include six administrative and management positions.

Services originally in the intensive services program will be uninterrupted as they are transferred to the county’s adult outpatient and youth mental health programs.

Two vacant positions in the department’s recovery services will be cut, including a recovery mentor and a program coordinator. Earlier this year, the department learned it will receive less money from the state for treatment services, which affected its ability to hire for vacant jobs.

Deputy Director Katrina Griffith said at the May 29 meeting that the cuts were “long-term vacant positions we haven’t been able to fill.” 

She explained that the department made the cuts due to a nationwide shortage in various health care jobs and a struggle to hire for mental health positions that developed after Covid. The department wants to prepare for potential funding uncertainties and prioritize supporting current staff, according to Griffith.

She did not mention any impacts to services.

Public works

Next year’s public works budget would see a decrease of $18.3 million, about 7.7%.

The decrease is largely due to the closing of the Reworld incinerator. The county paid a private company, Reworld Marion, to operate it while collecting service fees from people disposing of trash to fund operations.

The closure will reduce the county environmental program’s staff by four positions.

Three other positions in public works would be eliminated in the new budget, including an emergency manager and two parks staff.

Sheriff’s office

The Marion County Sheriff’s Office will see a $4 million increase, 4.7% more than its current budget of $93.2 million.

The proposed budget includes increases in the sheriff’s office’s personnel benefits and wages, along with rising costs of supplies and maintenance.

The sheriff’s office will cut 10 vacant positions in its parole and probation supervision program. The budget says the position reduction was due to a calculation error made in the current budget.

The error overestimated how much funding the program had available to cover full-time positions in the last fiscal year, according to sheriff’s office spokesman Sgt. Jeremy Schwab.

The error left a handful of positions vacant as a cost-savings measure, while state funding originally planned for the parole program had to go towards maintaining services in corrections, Schwab said.

The sheriff’s office will see an increase in state funding for community corrections and programs that divert people using drugs away from the justice system.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story stated that staff in the county’s intensive services program would transfer to other programs. Staff will stay in their current positions. Salem Reporter apologizes for the error.

Contact reporter Madeleine Moore: [email protected].

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