After discussion took place over the county’s assistant administrator position and the funding of that position from the landfill budget, attention was then turned to Seward County’s budget process at the commission’s most recent meeting last Monday.

Commission Vice Chair Todd Stanton said he was asking commissioners and staff to keep in mind the public toleration level for increases in the mill levy.

Meanwhile, Chairman Steve Helm said the mill levy is primarily based on the county’s valuation, and the levy presented in the proposed budget is merely an estimate.

“Every year I’ve been involved in the budget, we make a statement saying the mill levies are an estimate because we will not have the final valuation until November,” he said. “You’re always hesitant. I’ve heard people say we’re not going to raise the mill. You don’t know what the valuation’s going to be in November. That could be true, or it could not be true, but we have always had the estimated valuation.”

Stanton said, though, the local appetite for increases is basically zero and that the public “would tolerate no more than a 3 percent increase in ad valorem taxes.”

Helm argued valuations such as agriculture, oil and gas and residential fluctuate often, and this makes it hard to determine a final mill levy for the fiscal year.

“I understand the public appetite is zero for tax increases, but there are varying valuations of the categories,” he said. “We don’t know what the final valuation’s going to be, and you have people at their residences. The valuation has increased. One entity bragged they kept the mill levy the same. They did, but they got a million more dollars, and there have been two or three more entities like that.”

“I think we’re arguing two sides of the same thing,” Stanton said.

“We already have done this for a number of years,” Helm said.

Stanton said he was merely suggesting wage increases not be included in the budget process until after the total budget numbers have been examined. 

“That’s the way it’s been handled,” Helm said.

“No it isn’t,” Stanton said.

“Some departments automatically put a 3 percent increase in, and some don’t,” Helm said.

Administrator April Warden said a memo last year said to put in a 3 percent increase for the budget.

“However, if you read the statement, this was not a guarantee, and until budgets were completed, it would be at the commission’s discretion if any wage increase would be given,” she said. “It was very explicit in the memo from last year.”

Stanton said he was suggesting wages should be dealt with later in the process, while Helm said wages are generally looked at after each department has presented its budget.

“We may have one more step than what you’re advocating, but we’re already doing what your second bullet point is,” Helm said.

“I disagree with you sir,” Stanton said.

Stanton said he would like to see budgets submitted to commissioners, along with anything Warden receives that fall outside of the county’s budget guardrails.

“I understand that , but I believe Administrator Warden has been criticized for massaging the budgets, so do we want her to put in the guardrails?” Helm said.

“My suggestion is they be put in place, and I think the board can vote as it wishes to,” Stanton said. “This got rather dragged out last year and was torturous. I’m just looking for ways to streamline it so it’s easier for all of us to work with.”

Stanton too said he would like to see capital or extraordinary expenditures dealt with separately from the regular budget. Helm said capital improvements are part of a separate budget every year.

“It’s a long drawn out process, but I believe capital improvements are about the last thing that’s discussed,” Helm said. “We see where we’re at with the money in the budget, and we start looking at items we’ll purchase then.”

“What do you suggest we do so we’re not starting at a point where we’ve got to whack $10 or $15 million out of a proposed budget?” Stanton said.

“Last year was an anomaly, and I think that figure was $5 million, not $10 or $15 million,” Helm said.

“The prior year, it was a huge amount, not as big, but it was several million dollars,” Stanton said. “It was eight mills that was proposed and returned to Revenue Neutral. I’m looking for a way we don’t start from way up here where numbers aren’t going to be realistic compared to our revenue streams.”

Warden said department heads have been asked to look at capital improvements over a five-year period.

“We break it down for you for those that are in the general fund between county equipment and county building,” she said. “Those entities like Road and Bridge, county technology, they include theirs in their budget because they are not within the general fund.”

Warden said the county’s information technology department has been tasked with the responsibility of budgeting all technology purchases for every department.

“The department heads will still go over what they’ve requested for capital improvements knowing you will discusss that at the end and determine what we can do in that year,” she said.  

Warden said if the appetite for an increase is zero, department heads making budgets would prove to be a pointless task.

“There’s not much need in us submitting a new budget,” she said. “It would be the same as it is this year. We’re already trying to sort out where we can make those cuts.”

Warden added if it is the commission’s wish to keep increases to 3 percent or less, staff needs to be notified.

“We had no idea fuel expenses were going to be this big,” she said. “We’ve already been notified about parts and delays in our equipment as well as death and oils that are going to be tripling soon. We have expenses we are going to have to adjust. If we have to adjust that within 3 percent guidelines you’re giving us, tell us that.”

Stanton said Monday’s discussion was to help establish parameters.

“I think we’re trying to avoid departments submitting budgets through you to us that we know aren’t going to function,” he said. “That did happen last year.”

Helm asked if commissioners were going to give Warden authorization to review budgets and make changes without being criticized.

“Are we going to give that authorization to prepare in line conservative budgets?” Helm said.

“If we do it through this process, I don’t see why not,” Stanton said. 

“We do put in a budget binder, and we review it item by item,” Helm said.

Stanton said the point he was trying to make was not about putting budget records in a binder.

“We’ve agreed from last year, we’re going to include all revenue streams and what was shown, and I think last year, that was an issue with the CIC system,” he said.

“We had all of the revenue streams,” Helm said. “They were just underestimated.”

“We’ve never budgeted revenue streams by line item before,” Warden said. 

“That was a change you requested last year, and we’ve made it,” Stanton said. “I think it helped.”

“That’s also a reflection on your revenue report you get now,” Warden said.

“We’ve already agreed to continue doing that because it helped everything last year,” Stanton said.

Warden said sending budgets digitally to commissioners as they are submitted, as well as a completed binder, is easy.

“That’s not an issue,” she said.

Stanton asked if the county had some basic parameters commissioners could agree on to allow Warden to go to work on the budget. Helm said those parameters have always been used to his knowledge, but Stanton said they produced a massive budget for Fiscal Year 2026.

“Obviously something didn’t work,” Stanton said. “When you aggregated all the budgets that were submitted to April last year, it required a 25-mill increase in taxation, so something wasn’t functional.”

“We’re operating with a different commission,” Helm said. “I think April fully understands what we expect, which is a conservative budget.”

“She’s asking for clear direction,” Stanton said.

Warden emphasized if the commission wants department heads to stay within 3 percent of what they were given this year, this needs to be communicated to staff.

“They need to know what they’re working within,” she said.

“Just to clarify, that 3 percent was talking about a 3 percent increase in a projected mill levy, not a 3 percent across the board budgetary increase,” Stanton said. 

“If you guys are going for the appetite is zero, then just tell us it’s zero,” Warden said. 

Warden added department heads have gone through their budgets to try to get back to Revenue Neutral this year. 

“If we’re staying at a zero, a lot of them at the department head meeting expressed there’s not any need in them resubmitting a budget to you this year if you already know what that amount is you’re asking them to stay within,” she said.

No matter what is done, Helm said commissioners cannot keep delaying necessary purchases such as vehicles for the sheriff’s office.

”We can’t continually kick purchases down the road for equipment,” he said.

Warden said those types of decisions are nothing new for county leaders.

“Other commissioners have been in the same spot you guys are, and that’s what they did,” she said. “That’s over time. Then you’re faced with that, and then we’re trying to figure out how to keep up maintenance with our buildings, a fleet of vehicles and equipment. Everything’s needing to be replaced at one time. We need to space out replacement of IT equipment so it’s not all coming due at once. If you keep kicking the can down the road, at some point, you’ve got to figure out how you’re going to do things.”

Commissioner John Mettlen suggested Warden draft a letter telling department heads to make their budgets as conservative as possible.

“Make a list of what needs replaced to see if it’s doable on the equipment,” Mettlen said. “With the equipment, we’ll take it one-on-one or department by department and see where the needs are the most, and we’ll have to make a decision. The commission needs to meet with every department head, and I want to hear what they have to say and what they need and what we can’t put off and what we can, but I would draft a letter to be as conservative as possible and see where it shakes out. Fuel, oil, stuff like that in the big departments, sheriff, Road and Bridge, that’s a major expense. We’re going to have to figure that out in the budget. We didn’t anticipate fuel prices doubling. We have to figure that stuff out.”