ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
After several budget work sessions, two public hearings, one of which saw several local constituents contest a proposed mill levy hike of nearly 8 mills over the Revenue Neutral Rate, and a motion to pass a resolution to exceed the RNR that died from a lack of a second, in September, commissioners were able to adopt a budget.
The final budget approved by the commission was set at the RNR, the rate at which the same amount of property tax would be collected for Fiscal Year 2025 as FY 2024.
The final mill levy for the upcoming fiscal year was set at 43.414 mills, down from the proposed 51.399 mills. Administrator April Warden said several factors played a part in the original plan for an increase.
“Seward County’s facing significant challenges with our roads, an increase in our comprehensive insurance package, employee benefits, fuel, parts, utilities, other commodities and equipment and the general price to provide the general services our constituents expect,” she said. “We still have the outstanding tax appeal with the ethanol plant. Our valuation is where it was in 2006.”
While the county’s overall valuation was only down slightly from FY 2024, Warden said different parts of the valuation experienced ups and downs in the past year.
“Ag values are down 22.99 percent,” she said. “Oil and gas is down 37.43 percent. Our commercial value did go up 2.73 percent. Residential value went up 6.65 percent. Public utilities were up 0.48 percent. Overall, our total valuation went down 1.42 percent.”
Warden said this along with the needs indicated by the departments and outside funding agencies originally called for increasing the budget by 22 mills or $5,865,486, but commissioners originally proposed a 7.985 mill increase or $2,128,905.
“Due to the challenges, we cannot expect services with the same amount of property tax dollars as the year before,” she said.
Warden said the challenges the county was experiencing took more consideration, research and further action to propose a budget structure that met the needs the public was loud and clear about, but still met mandatory obligations and allowed the county to have a cash balance that was not completely eroded to the point of not being fiscally responsible.
As far as the first public hearing which saw several constituents making their concerns heard, Warden said the commissioners, herself, department heads, outside agencies and the county’s financial advisor put in much time and effort into a budget preparation.
“I felt the proposed budget conveyed the organizational direction, priorities and commitments and was a result of the vision, direction and the goals outlined from the commissioners holding the town hall meetings, their strategic planning sessions and the budget work sessions,” she said.
Warden said after months of preparation and three full days of budget work sessions in July, she was truly surprised to see a motion made by Commission Chairman Scott Carr to adopt the resolution to exceed the RNR die from lack of a second.
“The commissioners would not have had to adopt a budget that evening, but they did have to approve the Revenue Neutral Rate resolution to exceed the RNR to have that option,” she said. “When the motion failed to approve the RNR resolution, they no longer had any option but to pass a Revenue Neutral budget.”
Warden said the group of people who spoke at the first public hearing were not the same people who attended town hall meetings hosted by the commission.
“There was a definite shift in the feedback,” she said. “Circumstances change. There’s a shift in priorities, changes in the financial environment and unforeseen events, and cooperative behavior and respect for one another help us face challenges and pull through them. So back to the drawing board we went after that.”
The first public hearing took place at the commission’s Sept. 3 regular meeting, and the following day, the commission had a work session to look at what further cuts could be made to the budget. Warden said that work session was a difficult one.
“There had already been so much trimming that had happened from cutting it from 22 mills to the 7.985 or 8 mills,” she said.
Warden said a variety of ideas were considered for trimming that day.
“There were various recommendations like a 10 percent cut across the board, a 3 percent cut across the board, cutting the outside agencies we fund to provide services the county doesn’t provide in half, putting a pause on the outside agency funding for a year, changing employee benefits, foregoing the cost of living increase for the employees,” she said.
Warden said after that work session, no final determination was made as to what to do, so a second work session took place Sept. 17, just two days prior to the final public hearing that saw the commission approve the Revenue Neutral budget. With this, the administrator said a different approach was taken.
“Our financial advisor and I took a look at the estimated expenditures,” she said. “We start this process in July by asking, ‘What did we report in July, and where are we at in September?’”
Warden said based on estimates, seven departments were identified as having some reserves at the end of 2024.
“That’s due to a number of reasons,” she said. “That can be due to anticipating replacement of items or turnover in workforce, so you have more money in the personnel budget.”
As far as what contributed to the county’s ability to lower the mill levy to the RNR, Warden said there were several factors there as well.
“The ethanol plant tax appeal is scheduled for hearing in November,” she said. “We wanted to make sure we didn’t touch those reserves and left those there to cover that expense. We’re not doing a planned transfer of the $1,190,000 that was planned to the Special Highway Fund, which lowers the Road and Bridge mill levy, which in turn lowers our mill levy. We eliminated the $125,000 set aside for fee appraisals, but also know if we have a need for this, it will have to come from reserves. We eliminated $230,000 from equipment reserves by removing the replacement of vehicles and equipment that was requested. We are also partially self-funded in our health and dental insurance plans.”
When it comes to health and dental insurance, Warden said that is always budgeted for a worst case scenario on health claims based on numbers provided by the county’s actuary.
“We did lower this amount for 2025 relevant to where we are coming in at for 2024 and looking at the prior year numbers,” she said.
Lastly, Warden said the county’s Reserve for Claims budget was lowered by $300,000, and a cost of living increase for employees was also eliminated, saving the county $302,659.
“All of these approaches come with some risk, but it allowed the commissioners to be able to pass a Revenue Neutral budget,” she said.
Though it may have seemed this year’s budget was a bit more scrutinized than in past year, Warden, a long-time employee of the county, said each budget year comes with different challenges, but the goal is to always recognize the needs identified by citizens and balance those needs against the tax and revenue burden required to finance those.
“The commissioners are always being asked to accomplish a lot, and they have to examine the human capital and financial means to do so,” she said. “They’re always evaluating what we do, why we do it and how we’re doing it.”
In her time with the county, Warden said she has witnessed commissions who realize needs, but were never willing to raise the mill levy and taxes.
“For years, we have squeezed the budget to a bare minimum, and we have a stagnant valuation,” she said. “We have aging equipment and infrastructure. We have a lot of inflationary challenges right now. We’ve dealt with a lot of turnover in the workforce, and you’re faced with raising the mill levy or deciding where you’re going to cut services. It feels this budget was scrutinized more, but in reality, every year is a challenge.”
Warden said this is the first year she can remember when a plan was not in place following the July budget work sessions.
“We usually have a consensus and a plan of how we’re moving forward, and that was changed this year, so we adapt,” she said.
