The county of Marin should finish this fiscal year with a $5.5 million budget surplus that could be spent on a variety of projects, County Administrator Matthew Hymel told the Board of Supervisors on Monday.

Speaking during the first day of a three-day planning workshop on the 2017-18 budget, Hymel also said his staff will recommend in June that Marin County become a “Deep Green” customer of MCE, formerly known as Marin Clean Energy. Supervisors begin hearings on the 2017-18 budget in June.

Hymel presented a prospective list of projects on which the surplus could be spent: $3 million for roads and storm damage; $1.6 million for a new Tomales fire station; $450,000 to replace the county’s fuel system; $375,000 for phase two of Baywave, an effort to prepare for sea-level rise; and $100,000 for the county library’s “Flagship” program, which presents storytimes, games and other kindergarten-readiness activities for children age 5 and younger.

He said a final decision on how to spend the surplus won’t be made by supervisors until June. At that time, supervisors also will have to address how to compensate for a sharp drop in state funding for In-Home Support Services as well as new board priorities, including a two-year trial of Laura’s Law and improving mental health services in the county jail, Hymel noted.

Dana Armanino, Marin County’s sustainability planner, told supervisors that switching to Deep Green would cost the county an additional $152,000 annually, about a 6 percent increase in its electric bill.

“Any energy savings we achieve will reduce that amount,” Armanino said.

MCE customers have a choice of purchasing “Light Green” electricity, which comes from at least 50 percent renewable sources, or “Deep Green” electricity, which comes from 100 percent renewable sources. The Deep Green option also forgoes the use of Renewable Energy Certificates. Deep Green customers pay a premium of about 1 cent per kilowatt hour.

Nearly a dozen members of the public spoke during the meeting urging supervisors to take the step.

Among the public speakers were two members of 350Marin.org. — Sarah Loughran of San Rafael and Helen Marsh of Tiburon — who have mounted a campaign to convince the county of Marin and all of Marin’s municipalities to become Deep Green customers.

“Our climate crisis has reached a point of extreme urgency where we risk losing everything we know and love,” Marsh said. “We’re all in this together and we’re all called to do as much as we can to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible”

Loughran said, “If the county of Marin switches to Deep Green, it will remove over 5.5 million pounds of carbon from the atmosphere every year. “

The efforts of Marsh and Loughran helped convince the city of Larkspur and the town of Corte Madera to decide last week to become Deep Green customers. Prior to that only four of Marin’s 11 municipalities — Belvedere, Fairfax, San Anselmo and Sausalito — were in the Deep Green program. The Marin Municipal Water District board voted last year to make the switch.

Armanino said that as of 2015, the most recent year for which data is available, unincorporated Marin had reduced its greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent below 1990 emission levels.

“In our Climate Action Plan we have a measure asking for residents and businesses to switch to Deep Green, Armanino said. “If we’re asking them to do it, we should also be willing to step up and do it ourselves.”