BEND, OR -- Deschutes County’s Budget Committee begins discussing the Fiscal Year 2023 budget on Monday. At just over $398 million, the proposed budget is a 5.8% increase over the current year. 

County Administrator Nick Lelack says there are a couple of big capital projects, including the courthouse expansion, "We’re in the planning and design phase of that. That’s estimated to cost the county up to $40 million, but it’s a really critical facility for us, going forward." He admits the price tag is higher than initially thought, "It was initially estimated to cost in the upper $20 million range, but with inflationary costs across the country - materials, labor, everything - it’s driving that cost up." He adds, "We budget for the full amount but we’re not going to spend it all this next year, of course. Then we’ll likely go out for bonds early in 2023. We don’t want to begin to borrow money too long before we begin to really spend it on the hard costs for the project."

Lelack tells KBND News they're also looking for ways to increase solid waste capacity, as Bend's Knott Landfill nears capacity. "The funding that we’re really including in this next year’s budget is for the Negus Transfer Station improvements in Redmond, which will be a really significant upgrade to that facility. But we’re continuing to invest in our landfill siting process to replace Knott Landfill in the future." He expects they’ll identify a new landfill site within the next two years.

There’s also $12.4 million dollars in road projects and a proposal to increase the tax rate of one Rural Law Enfrocement District. That rate would rise 9 cents to $1.43. 

Budget meetings are open to the public and will be live streamed. 

County Commissioners will vote to adopt the final budget in June, prior to the start of the new fiscal year on July first.