Ouray County plans to enact a hiring freeze and eliminate raises, including cost-of-living adjustments, to help balance its 2026 budget.

After a nearly four-hour special work session on Sept. 29, commissioners agreed maintaining salaries and personnel at current levels was one of the only ways to make a significant dent in a $1.4 million budget deficit.

They approved publishing that draft budget during a regular meeting on Tuesday.

The draft budget discussed last week had the county drawing $1.4 million from its general fund reserves to cover its proposed expenses.

Commissioners were able to ratchet down that amount to $1.1 million during the Sept. 29 work session, primarily by cutting salary and personnel increases costing about $320,190.

The hiring freeze and plan to draw down reserves contrasts with budget planning from just two years earlier, when the county added seven new employees in 2024 — a deputy county manager, deputy county attorney, two sheriff’s deputies and three paramedics. If the county ends up pulling a budgeted $950,000 from its general fund reserves in 2025, that would leave a general fund balance of around $1 million.

Interim County Manager Kara Rhoades said the 2026 deficit is largely caused by a decrease in expected revenues and continually rising costs. The biggest hit to revenues is a projected $264,239 loss in marijuana excise tax. Ouray County Public Health is also expecting cuts to state revenues this year and in 2026.

During the Sept. 29 work session, commissioners also agreed to other cuts here and there, including eliminating the new Ouray County Sheriff’s Office alpine ranger program, created earlier this year to replace fired federal U.S. Forest Service rangers. That program was budgeted for $67,500.

Eliminating requested raises for 16 county employees and the salary for an additional public health nurse will save the county $188,190. Cutting a 2.5% cost-of-living increase is saving the county $132,000.

County leaders decided to cut raises and personnel from the budget after spending hours trying to find smaller cuts that weren’t doing enough to chip away at the deficit.

“There has to be a change. I don’t think these little $10,000 here, $20,000 here (in reductions), is getting us there,” Rhoades said. “And I don’t know what that (change) is, other than, I hate to say it, it could be vehicles, it could be personnel.”

Commissioners also discussed bringing back a policy to bring all proposed new hires before the board for review and approval. They discussed that policy during a work session Wednesday. It appears that policy won’t apply to positions which are currently in the midst of a hiring process, such as the assistant manager for the 4-H Event Center and Fairgrounds.

They also agreed to eliminate the brand-new Sheriff’s Office alpine ranger program, despite expressing strong support for the program.

“We were able to do it on an emergency basis this year. We should try to get grants to continue it, but, you know, that’s a service that we need the federal government to provide. We just can’t do it out of the general fund without a dedicated revenue source,” Commissioner Jake Niece said.

Commissioners also decided to only fulfill part of the 7th Judicial District Attorney Office’s request for 35% more funding than 2025. At a gathering of all county managers within the 7th Judicial District, those leaders said their counties would award a 25% budget increase for the office. Ouray County commissioners agreed to that amount, for a total contribution of $229,336.

Commissioners also decided to cut down on approving contributions from organizations and outside contracts, including participating in a new, community-wide calendar for $5,000.

The new budget also reflects a $1 million correction to the Ouray County Emergency Medical Services budget, shrinking what was incorrectly calculated as a $1.3 million deficit.

That gap was a miscalculation, according to Rhoades, who said she mistakenly included the expenses of a new proposed community paramedic program, which the department hopes to launch next summer. EMS plans to find grants or enter into cost-sharing agreements to offset its cost. Commissioners spent more than an hour discussing how to reduce that deficit during the Sept. 29 work session, not knowing the $1 million expense was actually not supposed to be part of this year’s budget.

Lia Salvatierra is a journalist with Report for America, a service program that helps boost underserved areas with more reporting resources.