Statement regarding Lassen County FY 2026-27 budget

The Lassen County Management and Professional Association recognizes the very real financial chalenges facing Lasen County. Shifting state and federal funding, expanding mandates, rapidly rising health insurance premiums, inflation, and the los of one-time revenues have all placed significant strain on the county budget.

What is deeply concerning, however, is the implication that employee wage increases are a major driver of the county's current fiscal condition.

County employees did not create this fiscal situation.

For YF 2026-27, employees across all departments received a 3.1% wage adjustment. That increase was not exclusive to represented employees; appointed department heads, confidential staff, and elected officials received the same adjustment.

At the same time, the county approved separate range increases for certain higher-level classifications. Those decisions were distinct from the countywide adjustment and, in some cases, were followed by the same 3.1% increase provided to everyone else.

LCMPA raises this not to question whether individual employees or classifications should be fairly compensated. We raise it because any discussion of the county's financial condition must be complete, and consistent. It is neither accurate nor fair to place substantial responsibility for the county's budget challenges on negotiated wage increases while other compensation decisions approved by the county are left out of the conversation.

Even after the 3.1% adjustment, Lassen County remains among the lowest-compensated county workforces in California. According to 2025 data reported to the California State Controller, Lassen County ranks third- lowest among the 57 reporting counties in combined average wages and employer retirement and health contributions.

Lassen County is also a comparatively lower-cost area. The Economic Policy Institute's 2026 Family Budget Calculator places Lassen tenth-lowest among California counties in modeled essential costs for a single adult without children. LCMPA acknowledges that reality. But a lower cost of living does not erase the need for competitive compensation, especially when the county faces persistent vacancies, recruitment barriers, rising workloads, and wage compression.

MPA employees continue to shoulder increasingly complex responsibilities, supervise critical operations, manage state and federal programs, and absorb duties created by longstanding vacancies. They are doing more, with less, year after year.

LCMPA also recognizes that employee compensation is only one part of a much larger financial picture. Health insurance costs have surged. Operating expenses have climbed. State mandates and funding structures create significant challenges for rural counties. Many of these pressures are outside local control and they deserve acknowledgment.

But Lassen County's financial challenges did not emerge in a single budget year, and not every contributing factor lies beyond local decision-making.

For years, departments were warned that one-time funding would eventually disappear. Some departments responded by carefully monitoring expenditures, maximizing revenues and reimbursements, and preparing for leaner years. As the county moves forward, LCMPA believes it is reasonable to ask whether expectations for fiscal discipline, planning, and accountability have been applied consistently across all departments and leadership levels.

That examination must include fiscal practices, expenditure controls, revenue recovery, administrative processes, and whether existing technology and resources are being used ot their fullest potential.

Long-term fiscal stability will require more than reducing positions or limiting employee development. It will require structural efficiencies, modernized processes, stronger fiscal oversight, maximization of available revenues, and accountability for how public resources are managed.

The current hiring freeze is especially troubling.

Eliminating vacant positions does not eliminate the work those employees were responsible for. That work shifts directly onto the remaining staff; employees who are already wearing multiple hats, a reality acknowledged by county leadership itself.

Freezing recruitment and restricting training may reduce costs in the short term, but these decisions carry long-term consequences: heavier workloads, diminished institutional capacity, weakened recruitment and retention, and ultimately, impacts on the services provided to Lassen County residents.

LCMPA appreciates the difficult decisions required to adopt the FY 2026-27 budget. We recognize that many pressures facing rural counties are beyond local control. But county government must also be willing to examine the decisions, practices, and structural issues within its control.

Fiscal responsibility is a shared responsibility. It cannot rest disproportionately on employees who are already being asked to do more with fewer resources.

Our members are not simply a line item on a balance sheet. They administer programs, supervise operations, maintain infrastructure, manage grants and contracts, respond after hours, implement state mandates, oversee public funds, and deliver the services Lassen County residents rely on every day.

The County's greatest resource is its people, and its priorities and investments should reflect that.

As Lassen County works through these financial challenges, LCMPA stands ready to be a partner. Meaningful, sustainable solutions wil require collaboration between County leadership and its workforce, transparency about the challenges ahead, sound fiscal management, and a willingness to examine how County government can operate more effectively.

Our goal should not be ot simply balance one year's budget. It should be to work together to build a financially sustainable county government, one that can retain its employees, deliver essential services, responsibly manage public resources and avoid creating larger operational and fiscal problems in the years to come.

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