EARL WATT
• Leader & Times
Despite claims that Seward County has eliminated 18 positions to meet the requested mill levy rate, payroll report comparisons from 2024 to 2025 show that the total payroll expenses have increased by $261,406.93 through August of each year.
From Jan. 1, 2024 to Aug. 31, 2024, Seward County spent a total of $7,932,115.40 on payroll according to records forced to be released by a Kansas Open Records Act demand.
In September 2024, the Seward County Commission failed to approve a motion to pass a Revenue Neutral Rate increase when Commission Chair Scott Carr moved for an 8 mill increase but did not receive a second. The meeting ended without a motion to exceed RNR, and the amount the county could raise through property tax was locked at the exact same rate for 2025 as it was for 2024.
Despite operating with the same amount of property tax, Seward County spent $8,193,522.33 on payroll for the comparable period, an increase of more than $264,000.
During budget discussions, Seward County Administrator April Warden claimed that 18 positions have been eliminated including one position in the county clerk’s office, three in the appraiser’s office, two in Road and Bridge and one each in GIS, Emergency Management, Cimarron Basin Community Corrections and Rural Fire.
But Carolyn Huddleston, a local citizen, obtained through an Open Records Act request the payroll data of the county, and her records indicate that between 2024 and 2025, the county lost one position in the appraiser’s office, one in GIS, two in rural fire, two in Emergency Management and one in the landfill and added a position in the county attorney’s office, two in Road and Bridge, six in the jail, one in ambulance and one in economic development for a net gain of four positions.
In March, the Seward County Commission also approved a $507,913 benefits bump paid by the county despite the constraints of bringing in the same property tax revenue in 2025 as it did in 2024.
The Seward County Commission recently voted 3-2 to raise property taxes by more than a record 13 mills for 2026 and earlier approved a ballot measure to raise a half-cent sales tax to be on the November ballot for the repair and improvement of county roads.
