Editor’s note: This story has been corrected to accurately reflect the county’s disaster fund balance heading into 2026.
Ouray County commissioners approved the county’s 2026 budget during their regular meeting Tuesday, after months of belt-tightening.
The county plans to spend an estimated $23.4 million in 2026, compared with the $24.3 million approved for 2025.
The county will significantly deplete its savings to fund its 2026 operations. The county expects to end 2026 with only about $610,316 in general fund savings, down from $3.1 million at the beginning of 2025.
The county is using an estimated $1.58 million from those savings to cover its remaining 2025 expenses.
Commissioners managed to reduce the county’s draw on those savings in 2026. The county plans to spend $946,688 from its general fund reserve next year. Commissioner Michelle Nauer said that amount was closer to $1.5 million at the beginning of the budget process.
During Tuesday’s meeting, the commissioners discussed several possible last-minute changes to the draft budget but decided to defer any amendments until 2026. The statutory deadline for budget adoption is Dec. 10.
They discussed how the county is collecting and appropriating its new lodging tax revenue. Voters approved a new 6% lodging tax in November. Currently, the budget allocates a conservative amount of lodging tax revenue, accounting for only $100,000 of the projected $182,000 total revenues.
Most of that money — $73,000 — is being appropriated to Ouray County Emergency Medical Services. Ouray Mountain Rescue and marketing and tourism efforts will each receive $10,000. The remaining $7,000 will pay for the county’s share of a matching grant to pay for the new countywide housing services administrator.
Commissioner Lynn Padgett asked to appropriate another $40,000 in lodging tax to replenish a fund dedicated to county disasters. Commissioners approved using around $140,000 from the fund to repair County Road 361 after a rockfall earlier this year. There’s $57,445 remaining in the fund going into 2026.
“We can’t go into 2026 with no money in our disaster fund, and that’s what we’re doing,” Padgett said.
Commissioner Jake Niece and Nauer said they didn’t want to modify the budget numbers at the last minute and said the county has the power to reallocate funds in the event of a disaster.
Commissioners also agreed to eliminate an additional $100,000 in revenue for the Road and Bridge Department, which was supposed to be earmarked for future grant match payments for the Corbett Creek Bridge project. That change will be made after the budget is adopted.
“It’s not perfect, but this is a budget that I can live with passing and that we have power to modify as necessary in the coming year, Niece said.
Lia Salvatierra is a journalist with Report for America, a service program that helps boost underserved areas with more reporting resources.
