The Boulder County commissioners on Tuesday unanimously adopted the 2024 budget on Tuesday, including agreeing to cut the health department’s $8.5 million base budget by about $1.5 million, or about 18%.

But while the vote was unanimous, Commissioner Claire Levy noted her objection to the health department reduction, saying the department wasn’t given enough warning to allow it to strategically make cuts.

“What I fear is that this will send a message to our Boulder County Public Health employees that they as employees and the programs they champion are not valued,” she said.

County Chief Financial Officer Ramona Farineau said staff members took a conservative approach to the budget, which totals roughly $578 million.

While the county maintains a “healthy” fund balance, she said, the county’s ongoing expenses are higher than its ongoing revenue.

Increases on the expenses side include raising the base hourly wage for county employees by 3.5% to $23.23, which equals about $48,000 a year.

All employees will receive cost-of-living increases and will be eligible for a 2% increase based on merit.

For employees who are bilingual or serve as cultural brokers, the county set aside $1 million to compensate for the increased workload.While most department requests for increased funding or positions weren’t approved, human services and the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office each will receive an additional 10 positions.

Human services plans to hire additional employees to help residents sign up for federal programs, such as Medicaid.

The sheriff’s office plans to hire jail deputies, allowing the office to reduce the need for mandatory overtime and making it easier to retain staff members. The reduction in overtime and cost savings from other unfilled positions are expected to cover the cost of the 10 deputy positions.

Another addition is a $5 million, one-time allocation to the Boulder County Housing Authority to pay for unit improvements and to keep the Willoughby Corner affordable housing development on track. On the sustainability side, there’s $2 million dedicated to purchasing electric vehicles.

The county is increasing its support for homeless programs with a $900,000 allocation for the Boulder Shelter for the Homeless and $300,000 for Longmont’s Homeless Outreach Providing Encouragement. The county’s Disaster Recovery Fund will receive an additional $500,000, while $350,000 will be dedicated to mailing a newsletter to residents and $200,000 will pay for tribal consultation.

Boulder County Public Health is the only department that will receive a base budget cut. The commissioners at previous meetings said the department needs to review fee structures and outside grant opportunities while reducing duplicated services.

At a November Boulder County Board of Health meeting following the announcement of the proposed budget cut, Executive Director Lexi Nolen said the department was expecting cuts in coming years — but not this year. She added the cuts will affect services and the health department’s relationships with its community partners.

In her objection to the cuts, Levy said Nolen has been in the position as the official director for less than a year and is only at the start of a three-year plan to increase revenues and scale back programs and employees.

Such a large budget cut, she said, “should be done strategically after careful consideration of the programs and services that are going to be impacted.”

But Commissioner Ashley Stolzmann pushed back against Levy’s objection, asking where else she would cut $1.5 million from the budget.

Stolzmann also noted that public health isn’t spending all of its current budget this year and continues to have openings.

“We have a structural deficit, and we have to make tough choices to serve the community,” she said.