The Plumas County Board of Supervisors has proposed a 1% countywide sales tax as a way to resolve a persistent gap between county spending and revenues.
Wasting no time at their Nov. 18 meeting, the supervisors directed County Counsel Joshua Brechtel to prepare the documents required to place a sales tax measure on the June 2026 ballot.
Balancing the county budget without a deficit is the single most important action the county can take in the coming year, said Supervisor Mimi Hall. Her goal is to eliminate the deficit that annual budgets have carried for many years.
“It’s about our survival,” she said. “We have to do something because the base amount of core operations that we spend every single year is … outpacing the revenue that we have.”
The $175.3 million budget supervisors approved for the 2025-2026 fiscal year included a $6.2 million deficit. For 2024-2025 the deficit was $12.9 million. The trend is positive, said Hall, but it cannot continue.
“We’re shrinking the amount of deficit that we have, but we also have completely used up all of our one-time funds,” she said. “This is the end of the road.”
In a memo to the board, Hall and Board of Supervisors Chairman Kevin Goss issued a clear warning. Without action to boost the revenue stream, the county will be challenged to maintain essential public services, competitive wages and benefits, and ensure adequate staffing levels, it stated.
June 2026 ballot measure
Hall and Goss proposed placing a measure on the June 2026 ballot asking voters to approve a 1% tax on sales made in Plumas County. Hall estimated that the tax would generate $3 million annually. A two-thirds majority is required to pass the measure.
Unlike the county’s current 9% transient occupancy tax, a sales tax is broad-based and not levied on one segment of the economy, Hall said. Roughly half the revenue would be contributed by county residents and half by visitors and through-travelers, according to the memo. It would add $1 to every $100 spent in Plumas County.
Plumas County’s current sales tax is the statewide base rate: 7.25%. It is among the lowest in the region, Hall said. The sales tax in Butte County is 8.25%; in the city of Chico it is 9.25%. Grass Valley and Nevada City each collect 8.875% on all sales within the city. The sales tax in Nevada County is 7.5%.
“I think it’s the most even and fair way to make a big difference,” Hall said.
The $3 million she estimated in revenues is close to the amount county supervisors approved in wage increases to county employees over the last year, she noted. Although that accounted for around half of the $6.2 million deficit, she was adamant about supporting the raises.
“We know that those salary increases are forever, and we want to keep them. And we want to be able to keep going in that direction,” Hall said.
Selling the sales tax
Winning public approval for the ballot measure could prove challenging. In 2024, Plumas County proposed two separate ballot measures aimed at increasing revenues for public safety. Like the sales tax measure, both required a two-thirds majority to pass; neither garnered even a simple majority of “yes” votes.
Among the public concerns at the time was that supervisors control the revenue generated, said Supervisor Tom McGowan: “We get to decide where it goes.”
For it to have any chance of passing the supervisors should be prepared to mount a major public education campaign, he said. It’s up to the board to “assure the voting public that … we need it, and that it will be spent wisely,” McGowan said.
Supervisor Jeff Engel agreed. “I’m 100% behind this,” he said. “With a concerted campaign and public engagement, I think it would fly. But we do need to sell it.”
A sales tax would benefit the people of the entire county, said Supervisor Dwight Ceresola. It stands a better change of passing than previous ballot measures, which were aimed specifically at public safety, he said.
A sales tax is not the only revenue solution, said Hall, but it is the most immediate. The county will be looking at other measures to generate revenue, but those will require 18 to 24 months to implement, she said.
As county officials are working to increase revenues, they also need to work just as hard on saving money, said Nick Collin, Plumas County facilities director.
The supervisors are expected to review a legal proposal to place the 1% sales tax on the June 2026 ballot when they meet Jan.
