ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
After a public hearing that saw commissioners narrowly approve a resolution to exceed the Revenue Neutral Rate by more than 13 mills, attention was then turned to a public hearing that likewise saw the same narrow adoption of the Fiscal Year 2026 budget for Seward County.
Before constituents took to the podium, county staff and commissioners spoke about what was included this year’s budget.
“That was the 2026 budget for Seward County with spending authority of $41,422,542 and ad valorem tax of $16,151,840 to support that budget,” Administrator April Warden said.
Commission Chairman Scott Carr, one of three voting in favor of the increase, said this year’s spending authority is down about $1 million, but the county was still asking for more taxes.
“What happened is we’ve spent our reserves every year to keep our mill levy down, and it’s caught up with us,” he said. “We can’t keep doing that.”
Vice Chairman Steve Helm, who along with Commissioner Todd Stanton voted against the increase, said he researched counties similar to Seward County with facilities such as a community college, and he found among those counties, Seward County ranked second highest in mill levy.
“If we increase the mill levy like we’re talking, we’ll still be the second highest,” Helm said. “We’ll be a lot closer to number one. Seward County’s population has declined, based on census statistics from 2010 to 2024, by about 1,700 people. The school population reflects the same, but yet we want to grow government.”
Helm said he had presented two options prior to Monday’s hearing to further reduce the mill levy, both of which he felt were met with great negativity and little, if any, discussion.
“The proposal this year would be a 16 percent increase over last year,” he said. “We can’t keep that up.”
Helm had served on a previous commission that unanimously voted to reduce the mill levy for that fiscal year by four mills. Commissioner Tammy Sutherland-Abbott, who voted for the increase, questioned that decision.
“Why did the mills get dropped four mills knowing we needed money saved the year before we came on?” she said. “Why didn’t we have it put back? You guys knew we had a million and we needed that money.”
Helm said households do not have the luxury of increasing their income to be able to spend more money, and neither should government entities.
“If the county commission’s going to tell the public we’re on a diet, we need to act like we’re on a diet,” he said.
Carr said he, Sutherland-Abbott and Commissioner Presephoni Fuller did what they felt was necessary.
“We’re bucking up,” Carr said. “We’re paying the bill. It’s not our choice.”
Warden’s executive assistant, Hillary Franco, who at times serves in multiple capacities with the county, said employees are also taxpayers.
“I’m also an employee, and I work for you,” she said. “Whenever you want to talk about getting rid of things and getting rid of people and positions, remember your employees are out here listening to you, and I am also your constituent. If you can just throw me to the side, then cut the positions, find somebody else to do my job, or add it to somebody else’s position who’s already doing five. I’m just saying think it through.”
Fuller said there are 18 services counties are mandated to provide by the state.
“Let’s just close down the health department, do away with Rural Fire, close Road and Bridge,” she said. “That’ll save a whole lot of money, or will it have an epidemic? You have accidents. You have bad roads. All of these things are necessary. We are not here jumping for joy that we have to increase the mill levy. We are where we are because decisions were made.”
Fuller said the bleeding of the county’s budget needs to be stopped now before it gets worse.
“I appreciate every employee in every department,” she said. “I appreciate the health department having to cut their hours. That is hard when you have to feed your family and take care of other responsibilities.”
Like Franco, Fuller too said commissioners pay taxes, and they also feel the pain of what was not an easy decision.
“We’re not trying to score points with anyone,” Fuller said. “We’re here to make decisions. That’s why you elected us. If you are not in the position to make decisions, don’t run for office. These are hard decisions we have to make. The county has got to get out of where they are, and this is helping us get there.”
Fuller said commissioners and staff are hoping for a favorable result in the Board of Tax Appeals case with Conestoga Energy, but as of now, preparations need to be made if the situation dictates otherwise.
“I don’t want any employee who’s listening to think you are not valued,” she said. “We value you. We appreciate you. We want you to be protected. Do you know how hard it was for us to say take a million dollars from employee benefits? My prayer is we all stay healthy, and we have no pandemics. Cut machinery, don’t cut people because they have families to feed. Let’s figure out another way to do it.”
Fuller likewise pointed out the Seward County Health Department is largely run on grants, and when those grants are not available, the health department could be gone as well.
“We’re trying to get out of the hole we’ve been buried in,” she said. “It’s great to go on talk shows. It’s great to read stuff in the paper, but the reality is when the rubber meets the road, the decisions have to be made for this county to go forward.”
Liberal resident Rick Madden, who spoke earlier in the meeting, said he feels the mill levy is like a smoke screen.
“The mill levy doesn’t mean squat,” he said. “You say you lower it, but the property appraisals go up, so the mill levy is just a smoke screen to me, high talking people over what they think the common person doesn’t understand.”
Madden too asked how many undocumented immigrants were getting health care through the county and paid for by local citizens.
“I don’t think that’s right,” he said. “I don’t think the citizens of Seward County should be paying for an illegal to have health care. I just don’t think we signed up to pay for everybody’s health care.”
Fuller said if the undocumented families living in Liberal leave, the community would become a ghost town.
“That’s private information that is not supposed to be disclosed,” she said. “We don’t want people to think we don’t want to take care of them. We don’t want epidemics or pandemics. We’re going to take care of people regardless. We have not come to the point of who we’re taking care of or who we’re not taking care of and who’s paying for it and who’s not paying for it. Let’s respect our community. Let’s respect this culture. Let’s respect what’s built here.”
Fuller said Liberal’s natives may have built the community, but its newer residents are keeping it alive.
“Your population is between 30 and 40 years old,” she said. “You have a young population here. The older folks are retiring. They’re moving out, going to warmer places, so let’s be respectful.”
Stanton said he was not opposed to a modest increase and looking at some of Helm’s proposals.
“I think some of those have absolute merit,” Stanton said. “I think looking at the list of 18 can be an oversimplification. I’m aware we provide services under some of those departments we’re not actually required to provide. That may be a decision the county has made at some point in time.”
Stanton said in a budget crisis, any non-required services should be open to review and interpretation.
“I don’t know how many of these jobs we supposedly eliminated were real people,” he said. “The six jobs from the sheriff’s department were unfilled positions. Those are not people who have lost their jobs, and I’m uncomfortable with them being characterized in that way because it presents a false impression. I don’t think we should be doing that before the public.”
Stanton said he received a call from one senior citizen who was worried she would have to leave the house she has lived in for decades with the passage of the budget.
“That’s the kind of impact an increase of this size will have,” he said. “It will have a devastating impact on economic development in this county in my opinion. I would like to find something in the middle that perhaps doesn’t have such a significant impact, not only on the taxpayers, but on the future development of the county.”
Carr said commissioners at this time have no idea what the ruling will be on the Conestoga case.
“We still only have a couple years to get the funds in place,” he said. “It’s not going to be any prettier. We can look at ways to save money, but towards that, I know Steve’s efforts on collecting delinquent taxes has helped with saving some money there, but there’s a lot more to collect too.”
