Los Alamos County budget hearings to focus on stability, not expansion

Randall Ryti is casting Los Alamos County’s FY2027 budget season as a stress test for a post-growth era, not a push for expansion. The proposed budget, published March 31, totals $349.3 million, down from FY2026 adopted expenditures of $367.9 million as county leaders brace for slower revenue and tighter choices.

The biggest change is the county’s reliance on gross receipts tax, which the FY2027 Citizen’s Guide says supplies about 75 percent of General Fund revenue. Property taxes make up another 8 percent, leaving the rest to fees, intergovernmental revenue, investment income and other sources. After peaking in the post-pandemic period, gross receipts tax revenue fell nearly 18 percent in FY2025, and the guide says FY2026 was projected to drop another 4 percent below the adopted budget.

County financial materials show how sharp that reversal has been. FY25 General Fund gross receipts tax revenue came in at $80.7 million, or 86 percent of the adopted $93.6 million budget. By June 30, 2025, gross receipts tax revenue was about $13 million below budget. In a county that depends on steady revenue to support public services, infrastructure, recreation and long-term capital planning, that kind of shortfall forces a very different conversation about what can be sustained.

The clearest sign of that shift came in the FY2026 adopted budget, which fell $9.6 million below FY2025 largely because capital project funding dropped by $37 million. That kind of reduction points to the pressure points residents are most likely to notice, from delayed road work and utility investments to slower growth in staffing and fewer new projects layered onto existing services. The county says the budget remains sound, but that recurring revenue loss requires a structural response to preserve long-term stability.

The hearings will give residents a direct look at how that response is taking shape. Los Alamos County budget hearings are scheduled for April 27, 28 and 29 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. in Council Chambers at the Municipal Building, 1000 Central Ave. in Los Alamos. The sessions will also be streamed live, available through Zoom and posted later on video-on-demand.

That makes the hearings more than a procedural stop. Under the county’s first-year FY2025-2026 biennial budget cycle, FY2027 is part of a broader reset, one that will determine how much room remains for new spending after years of unusually strong growth. For households and local businesses, the outcome will help define how Los Alamos balances taxes, staffing, roads, utilities and recreation in a slower revenue environment.