The opening balance carried almost the entire plan
What’s the Scoop With Broach reviewed Kern County’s fund summaries in Schedules 2 and 3 of the fiscal 2025–26 adopted budget. The American Rescue Plan fund entered the schedule with $66,190,173 in available fund balance and listed $1.1 million in new financing, for $67,290,173 in total resources.
The adopted schedule assigned the same $67,290,173 to financing uses and showed no ending fund balance. The opening balance supplied 98.4% of the resources; new financing supplied 1.6%. Those percentages are newsroom calculations from the county’s published figures.
| Budget line | Amount | Share of resources |
|---|---|---|
| Available opening balance | $66,190,173 | 98.4% |
| New financing | $1,100,000 | 1.6% |
| Total financing uses | $67,290,173 | 100% |
| Scheduled ending balance | $0 | 0% |
Available is not the same as unrestricted cash
Schedule 3 reports a $75,926,268 total fund balance before adjustments. It then identifies $9,736,095 as encumbrances—money tied to existing obligations—leaving the $66,190,173 available amount carried into Schedule 2.
That distinction prevents a misleading conclusion. The record does not show $75.9 million free for new choices, and the zero scheduled ending balance does not mean every dollar had already been paid when the budget was adopted.
What the zero means—and what it does not
A zero ending balance shows that the adopted financing plan allocated all available ARPA resources to uses during the budget year. It also shows the plan was overwhelmingly dependent on previously accumulated recovery money rather than recurring revenue.
It does not establish waste, deadline compliance or project completion. Schedule 2 aggregates financing uses; it does not identify every contract, recipient, invoice or federal eligibility decision. Actual spending can differ from an adopted budget.
How this was reported
The newsroom transcribed the fund-level rows in Schedules 2 and 3, reconciled the beginning balance to the encumbrance adjustment, and divided each funding source by total resources. No interview or site visit was conducted.
The original contribution is a concentration finding: 98.4% of the fund’s adopted resource plan came from its opening available balance, and the schedule left no budgeted cushion. Project-level ledgers and later actuals are required to judge performance.