Weber County officials presented a tentative budget for fiscal 2026 this week that emphasizes employee compensation and includes steps to address pay deficiencies identified in a market compensation study, County Controller Stephanie Ebert said.

The tentative budget grew out of a process that began this summer. "We actually start with a no growth, budget process, and any additional requests or any dollars over and above what was approved for them last year, has to be requested separately," Ebert said, explaining departments began work in August, submitted requests in September and participated in budget hearings in October.

Ebert said the county compiled department submissions and presented the results to the commission as a tentative budget at a recent meeting. The tentative budget will be posted online for public review and the commission has scheduled a public hearing on the budget for the evening of Nov. 25; the final budget is expected to be adopted in December, she said.

Officials said compensation is the largest portion of Weber County's spending and that the county placed special emphasis this year on pay adjustments. "We've really focused this year on compensation, and compensation, the payments of our employees are really the lion's share of the budget in Weber County," Ebert said. She told commissioners a market study showed pay deficiencies in the sheriff's office and that the tentative budget reflects efforts to address those gaps.

Freire and Ebert said Weber County is not doing a truth-in-taxation increase this year and will not raise county property tax rates as part of this budget cycle. Ebert and Freire cautioned, however, that individual tax notices can show increases that do not stem from county action because the county collects taxes for numerous overlapping taxing entities. "About 40 taxing entities could show up on your tax notice," Ebert said, urging taxpayers to review their notices carefully.

No formal votes or ordinance adoptions were recorded in the remarks captured in the recapture video. The tentative budget is the first formal posting in the local process; commissioners and members of the public will have an opportunity to review the document and comment at the Nov. 25 hearing.

The controller's office and the commission did not provide dollar totals, staffing detail, or line-item changes in the recapture remarks; those specifics will be available in the tentative budget document posted online and at the public hearing, Ebert said.