Title
Review of LARES Budget Options
Body
On February 22, 2022, County Council accepted the LARES Final Report and immediately funded two of the LARES Budget Request Items for FY23 from the general fund. The two items funded are for the Comprehensive, Consumption-Based Greenhouse Gas Emissions Study (GR-2) and for the Climate Action Plan (CAP) (GR-3). The balance of the LARES Budget Request Items for FY23 were forwarded to the County Manager to be included and prioritized with the County’s FY23 Budget Options. The County currently has 39 budget options and Attachment C shows how the LARES FY23 budget requests are currently prioritized by the County Manager. The County’s budget options are ranked from 1 to 4 in priority with 1 being a higher priority. While the balance of the LARES Budget Request Items for FY23 are prioritized between 3 and 4, it is difficult to rank these requests higher until the Comprehensive, Consumption-Based Greenhouse Gas Emissions Study and Climate Action Plan are completed to support these additional staffing and budget requests. It will be helpful to receive the BPU’s feedback on these remaining LARES budget requests as the County Council considers the FY23 Budget at the hearings beginning on April 18th. Please note that any additional items that are approved would be paid for through the County's general fund and not the Department of Public Utilities budget.
Attachments
A - LARES Final Report
B - LARES FY23 Revised Budget Requests
C - LARES FY23 Budget Options