Brian Carlson, Yakima County Financial Services director, briefed the Board of Yakima County Commissioners on July 22, 2025 about a proposed financial-planning framework to guide the county's 2026 budget process and longer-term capital and facilities decisions.

Carlson framed a master policy of "financial planning" composed of planning elements such as budget, assets, reporting and long-range planning and said the county could adopt a measurable, branded way to track solvency risk. He held up an example from another jurisdiction and summarized it numerically: "your balance is 1.7, your requirement is 3.9. Therefore, you have a $2,200,000 problem," language he used to illustrate how an accessible graphic can give commissioners a three-year runway to act.

A second major theme was facilities maintenance. Carlson described a condition curve for facilities and a "line of inflection" after which restoration costs rise exponentially; he warned of a "generational deficit" if maintenance is deferred. "There is no not paying for it," he said, arguing that not funding maintenance now shifts larger costs to future budgets and can produce operational disruption.

On budgeting approaches, Carlson reviewed common methods — zero-based, baseline (algorithmic) and priorities-based budgeting — and recommended a mix: use baseline budgeting for recurring allocations, supplement it with priority-based reviews for new or strategic investments and apply discretionary ranking for non-statutory items. He described a checklist (performance metrics, strategic planning, succession planning and evaluations) departments should satisfy to strengthen funding requests.

Commissioners asked clarifying questions and offered comments. Commissioner Lindy discussed how contracts fit into the "must" versus "selective" prioritization framework, saying, "I'm struggling with contracts. Like, contracts can be broken. Like, it doesn't mean that we have to do the thing." Commissioner Curtis noted the county lacks a capital reserve for buildings comparable to vehicle replacement reserves and said sales-tax reliance makes long-term planning more volatile: "We don't do that for our buildings and I don't know why we haven't done that..." Carlson said slides and further material would be shared and that the policy framework could be developed over coming months and aligned with the 2026 budget timeline.

Ending: Carlson's briefing did not produce immediate policy votes; the board generally endorsed continuing development of the framework and requested slide materials and follow-up. The topic will recur in future work sessions and budget deliberations ahead of the '26 budget cycle.