Boone County’s budget for the 2025-2026 Fiscal Year is set in stone with the fiscal court unanimously voting for its approval.
On June 3, the fiscal court conducted a second reading for its upcoming fiscal year budget, which includes an increase in recurring general revenues, excluding carryovers, from $78.4 to $81.2 million, a 3.5% increase.
Conversely, county expenditures are $63.8 million, representing a 13.7% increase from the previous year. It should be noted that calculated expenditures don’t account for interfund transfers necessary to support the jail, road fund capital or infrastructure funds.
The county’s most significant expenditure categories are public safety, governmental operations and administrative functions. Other themes of the budget area include funding increases for infrastructure, jail and the Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky.
The new fiscal year begins on July 1 and ends on June 30, 2026.
Digging deeper into the budget, personnel and personnel-related expenses account for 58.5% of the General Fund, or 34.3% of the total operating budget. Boone County’s staff headcount sits at 288 full-time positions, with that number likely to increase by four as it looks to hire staffers in the parks, animal services, and communications departments.
In the sheriff’s department, the county is looking to hire seven additional deputies and provide a half-year’s worth of financial support for another five deputies.
The budget funds a variety of infrastructure and public safety projects, including rural water upgrades, sidewalk and trail improvements, bridge maintenance, drainage and slide stabilization, and a new emergency management and Public Safety Communications Center building. It also includes a computer-aided dispatch system upgrade, water rescue facility improvements with a public boat launch, and a roof replacement at the Sheriff’s Office.
The majority of Boone County’s public revenue comes from the collection of occupational licensing taxes, also known as payroll taxes, which comprises 54% of the revenue. Boone County’s second-largest revenue source is property tax collection, which accounts for 26% of the total.
Boone County Judge/Executive Gary Moore stated that Boone County’s administrative staff met all their timeline obligations.
County staff presented a draft budget to the fiscal court on April 23. After that, a refined budget was presented to the court on May 6, followed by a public hearing on May 20, which also included the first reading of the budget ordinance. Staff began drafting the budget in January.
“This has been an ongoing process since, really, right after the first of the year, when the departments with Matthew (Webster) and Lisa’s (Goetz) guidance began to work on the budget,” Moore said. “We’ve been through all the normal steps of public hearing, first reading, second reading. We had a caucus meeting with the commissioners.”
Boone County Treasurer Lisa Goetz collaborated with Administrator Matthew Webster when crafting the budget. Goetz was hired for the position last November, following the resignation of former Treasurer Rob Notton, who decided to take a job in the private sector.
Goetz has worked in the same role for other public entities in Northern Kentucky, including the City of Covington, Boone County School Board and Erlanger-Elsmere Independent School Board.
Goetz said the Department of Local Government, a state agency that provides financial, payroll, personnel, and administrative services to Kentucky’s state and local governments, reviewed the budget and approved it. Kentucky requires that the State Local Finance Officer, which works for the Department of Local Government, review proposed budgets submitted by the county before the final adoption
“The Department of Local Government submitted the budget on May the 21st and they approved it on May the 28th and they had no changes or comments on it,” she said. “We’re proud of that fact.”
