OpenSolano / Experiments

Where the County's Money Flows

Solano County's $1.71 billion governmental funds budget for FY2026-27. A county is a different creature than a city: most of its money arrives from Sacramento and Washington with instructions attached, and most of it leaves as public protection, health care, and the social safety net.

Governmental funds
$1.71B
FY2026-27 Recommended Budget
State & federal aid
36.7%
$650.2M intergovernmental — mostly restricted
Largest program
22.6%
Public protection, $387.2M
Safety net
$649.7M
Health & sanitation + public assistance combined
Per resident
$3,786
Total ÷ 452,050 population (DOF, Jan 2026)
View every published line item as a table
Side Group Line item Amount Note
revenue Sources Intergovernmental revenues $650236762 State (~25% of the budget) and federal (~12%) aid — realignment, Medi-Cal, social services allocations. Mostly restricted to specific programs.
revenue Sources Other financing sources $324323236 Largely transfers between county budgets — General Fund transfers alone are ~15% of the budget. Gross presentation counts this money again as it moves between funds.
revenue Sources Taxes $306542596 Property tax is the dominant local tax for the county.
revenue Sources Fund balance available $201366460 Estimated fund balance available June 30, 2026 (Schedule 1).
revenue Sources Charges for services $148531040
revenue Sources Use of money & property $26451456
revenue Sources Released from obligated reserves $20621141 Decreases to obligated fund balances (Schedule 1).
revenue Sources Miscellaneous revenues $15345319
revenue Sources Licenses, permits & franchises $13108345
revenue Sources Fines, forfeitures & penalties $4733920
spending General government General government $391999537 Inflated by interfund transfers (~15% of the budget flows out of the General Fund to other county funds through this function) plus countywide administration, assessor, elections, and IT.
spending Public protection Public protection $387173380 Sheriff, jails, probation, district attorney, public defender, courts support, fire districts — the largest true program area at 22.6% of the budget.
spending Health & sanitation Health & sanitation $370420934 Health & Social Services — behavioral health, public health, family health services; heavily state/federal funded.
spending Public assistance Public assistance $279280378 CalWORKs, CalFresh administration, foster care, In-Home Supportive Services, general assistance — the safety-net function.
spending Education Education $43246237 County library system (dedicated sales tax) and cooperative extension.
spending Public ways & facilities Public ways & facilities $39047762 Roads, bridges, and public works in the unincorporated county.
spending Debt service Debt service $9876877
spending Recreation & cultural Recreation & cultural $3040338
spending Contingencies & reserves Contingencies & reserve additions $187174832 Appropriations for contingencies across funds — General Fund $14.0M, capital outlay $20.0M, library $27.2M, roads $15.5M, ARPA, and dozens of special funds (Schedule 7).

How to read this

The left side is every financing source the county publishes — revenue categories from Schedule 5 plus the fund balance and reserves the budget draws down. The right side is the eight functional areas of county government from Schedule 7, plus the contingency appropriations parked across dozens of funds.

Compare this with Vacaville's $301M city budget and the difference in kind is obvious. A city's money is mostly local — sales tax, property tax, utility rates — and buys police, fire, water, and parks. The county's dominant source is intergovernmental aid ($650M, about 25% of the budget from the state and 12% federal), and its dominant uses are public protection and the health-and-welfare safety net ($1.04B combined). The county is, to a first approximation, the local delivery arm of state and federal programs — with far less discretion over its budget than the headline number suggests.

Methodology & sources

All figures are printed values from the standardized summary schedules of the County of Solano FY2026/27 Recommended Budget (budget documents): Schedule 1 (All Funds Summary), Schedule 5 (Financing Sources by Source), and Schedule 7 (Financing Uses by Function). Nothing is derived — the two sides reconcile to the dollar: $201,366,460 fund balance + $20,621,141 released reserves + $1,489,272,674 revenues = $1,711,260,275 = $1,524,085,443 of functional spending + $187,174,832 of contingencies.

  • Recommended, not adopted. This is the budget as proposed by the County Administrator; the Board of Supervisors adopts a final version with changes.
  • Governmental funds only. Internal service funds ($106.5M) are excluded because they would double-count charges between departments; enterprise funds ($2.9M) and special districts ($0.3M) are excluded for scale. The Schedule 1 all-funds total is $1.82B.
  • Gross presentation double-counts transfers — on both sides. "Other financing sources" ($324M) is largely money moving between county funds, and it re-enters spending mostly inside the General government function — which is why General government ($392M) rivals Public protection. The county's own summary graph splits it out: General government proper is about 8% of the budget, and General Fund transfers are another 15%.
  • Department detail is coming. Schedule 8 breaks each function into budget units (Sheriff, Probation, Behavioral Health, CalWORKs…); a future revision can add that layer to the diagram.
Source document: FY2026-27 Recommended Budget (585 pp.), Solano County Administrator's Office. Data with per-line provenance lives in the site repository (_data/budget_flows.yml). Questions or corrections: ryan@civic.studio.