Carbon County commissioners will prepare their annual budget within the timeline outlined in the County Code.

On Thursday, the commissioners approved a budget process that has the county budget presented no later than 20 days before final adoption, which must be completed by Dec. 31.

Back in December 2022, the board changed its budget timeline to allow action on the 2024 budget by the third week of October. Departments needed to complete all documents no later than Aug. 15.

At that time, former Commissioner Chris Lukasevich said the change would allow voters to have the budget information ahead of the General Election in November.

Previously, the commissioners traditionally put forth their initial spending plan in mid-November.

“We normally had adopted the tentative budget in November,” Commissioner Wayne Nothstein said. “We have to have it on display for 20 days and it has to be passed before the end of December.”

Commissioner Chair Michael Sofranko, who was not in office when the change was made, said the idea was to move up the budget process and start looking at it earlier.

“It’s not that we’re not going to start looking at the budget (earlier),” he said. “We’re always looking at the budget every day. The process is ongoing.”

However, projecting out the numbers so early for the following year meant some of the numbers were “as tight as they could have been had you had a little extra time to prepare.

“So this year, we’re staying in line with what the County Code says,” Sofranko said.