While many fairs throughout California are struggling to stay
afloat, San Benito County’s celebration of its agricultural
heritage has remained financially stable during recent years.
While the local fairgrounds functioned with $20,000 in losses in
2002 and has estimated overspending by $27,000 this year, it
maintains a healthy reserve fund of $145,000, according to the
fairgrounds’ most recent annual budget report.
While many fairs throughout California are struggling to stay afloat, San Benito County’s celebration of its agricultural heritage has remained financially stable during recent years.
While the local fairgrounds functioned with $20,000 in losses in 2002 and has estimated overspending by $27,000 this year, it maintains a healthy reserve fund of $145,000, according to the fairgrounds’ most recent annual budget report.
This year’s version of the San Benito County Fair runs Oct. 2-5 at Bolado Park in Tres Pinos. Fair Manager Kelley Ferreira said analyzing the reserve fund’s direction will be difficult until the completion of this year’s festivities.
“When you look at the big picture, maybe $20,000 over (spending) is not too bad,” Ferreira said. “We’re fortunate to have that (reserve fund) because some fairs don’t. I’ve been there and I sympathize with them.”
The San Benito County Fairgrounds is state-governed through the Department of Food and Agriculture. It receives most revenue from renting facilities throughout the year, while the state also allocates $180,000 annually.
Its expenses are mostly made up of employees’ salaries and benefits – $193,000 projected in 2003 – and maintenance of the grounds, also $193,000.
Ferreira, who has been with the local festival since 1986, said the San Benito County Fair has experienced harder times in the past. During his tenure, until the mid-1990s, the fairgrounds continually needed additional assistance from the state.
“We could never make ends meet,” he said.
At least for now, that is no longer the case. The state requires that each fair maintain a reserve fund amounting to 15 percent of the budget. The San Benito County Fairgrounds currently retains 27 percent.
Part of the current monetary stability, he said, has resulted from population growth and additional usage of the grounds throughout the year.
The fair also gets a boost from a Division of Fairs and Expositions in Sacramento that Ferreira called “the best we’ve ever had.” Meanwhile, the local 10-member Board keeps a close on where money goes and how alternative sources for funding can be tapped, he said. And the San Benito County Fair is run primarily by volunteers.
Every year, the state awards a bonus allocation to county fairs complying with certain criteria. This year, San Benito’s received $29,000, which went toward safety equipment such as emergency lights. The state also audits the grounds annually, a process currently underway and nearly complete.
“I think so far, so good,” said Tom Slavich, a board member who sits on the fair’s finance committee, of this year’s budget. “Kelly’s done a great job out there. We’re lucky to have him. It’s hard to say with the future, though, with the shape of California and its (economy).”
Each year in November, a submitted budget goes through the board and the finance committee before finding its way to the state’s Division of Fairs and Expositions. It is generally stamped with final approval sometime in January.
“It used to be a struggle,” Ferreira said. “We kind of got our head above water a little bit. In past years, when we’d get to November, we’d hope to make it to the end of the year.”
Ferreira said he sympathizes with fairs that continually agonize over money. Success or failure tends to be unpredictable, he said. This year, for instance, attendance for many fairs such as those in Monterey and San Mateo has dropped.
There is always some uncertainty because bad weather could significantly damper a fair’s potential success, Ferreira said. And unexpected expenses – such as a gas line break last year that cost $20,000 – can also contribute to losses.
“Pretty much, the goal is to keep the place going,” Slavich said, “to keep everybody happy and satisfy the public.”
