Board of Supervisors approves 24-25 fiscal year budget

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — The Kern County Board of Supervisors approved a new $4 billion budget for Kern County Tuesday with a focus on public safety and mental health.

County officials say 47% of the budget is allocated to public safety, 22% to general government, and 13% to public assistance. Nearly, $58 million in revenue comes from the county’s new sales tax called Measure K.

“The board approved a one percent sales tax in unincorporated areas of the county, our goal is to invest into the communities contributing to the unincorporated sales tax,” said Elsa Martinez, the Chief Administrative Officer for the county.

Public safety received the bulk of Measure K funds, taking 86% of the total funding.

District 5 supervisor Leticia Perez said that the public safety budget will not only go toward hiring more officers and catching criminals but also preventing crime, “This is good for Kern County, If we can prevent young people, prevent anyone from this pathway the savings to the taxpayer is astronomical.”

Education only took one percent of the general funding, Perez says education is mostly state money, “We believe in partnering with education, coming alongside our educators, building up the parks, providing resources within the schools,”

Capital county projects totaled $167 million for 154 projects in 2025. These projects range from facility upgrades to libraries to parks and disaster recovery.

Behavioral Health and Recovery Services received $422 million in funding while the Department of Human Services received $676 million.

Behavioral Health says this money will be used to staff two new psychiatric facilities built with last year’s budget, while also designing a youth crisis stabilization unit that will be built at the adjacent lot to these facilities.

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