ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
Amendments could be coming soon to the adopted budget for Fiscal Year 2026 for Seward County, but most likely, those changes will have to wait until January 2026.
That from attorney Forrest Rhodes from the Wichita-based law firm Foulston Siefkin, who provided commissioners with an interpretation of Kansas statute K.S.A. 79-2229A, which governs amendments of budget’s such as the county’s.
Rhodes said the statute provides for two situations in which a taxing entity such as the county could amend a budget.
“The first is for an adopted current budget that’s being amended during the year in which the budget is in effect,” he said. “In essence, you’re talking about the 2026 budget being amended in 2026, and that is permitted as long as the county, the board follows the same budgetary notice requirement publication of the notice of public hearing just like you did last month for the current budget.”
Rhodes said in order to amend the budget for FY 2026 in 2025, a correction would have to be made to a clerical error discovered before Oct. 1, a deadline he said that is important.
“There are several things that flow from that, but the information has to get to the county clerk, and the county clerk has to then process that information in order to meet the county clerk’s responsibilities to make the actual tax assessments to individual properties and to get that to the county treasurer’s office by Nov. 1,” he said.
Rhodes said he feels the exception for clerical errors was put in place due to budget processes potentially going beyond the Oct. 1 deadline.
“It’s allowed for clerical errors because there’s no dispute over what the amendment’s going to be,” he said. “The clerk’s office can continue to process the budget moving forward because they know the clerical error is going to be fixed.”
Rhodes said this is unlike general amendments where final numbers would not be known until after a second public hearing.
“Given the timeframe, the clerk’s office is not going to have enough time to do what they have to do to meet the Nov. 1 deadline,” he said. “So I don’t believe there is a path to amending the budget in 2025.”
Rhodes, though, did say the budget could be amended in early 2026, but he said amending the budget does not mean changing the mill levy, which exceeded the Revenue Neutral Rate, the mill levy at which the county would collect the same amount of revenue as the previous year, by more than 13 mills in the budget adopted for FY 2026 in September.
Rhodes also said K.S.A. 79-2229A does have a mechanism by which the levy could be increased.
“If the board were to decide expected revenues were going to be insufficient to meet the budgetary demands, the mill levy can be increased upon notice and a public vote of at least 75 percent of the voting taxpayers,” he said. “There is not a mechanism to reduce the mill levy.”
Rhodes said he feels this is due to informal guidance obtained from the state.
“The option would exist for the county to amend the budget in terms of expenditures to purposely spend less,” he said. “You can’t change what your collections are. The property taxes coming in aren’t going to change, but the board would purposely reduce the expenditures, so it would be creating a surplus at the end of the year.”
Rhodes said the commission would later have the opportunity to decide how to handle such a surplus.
“It could be applied toward expected 2027 expenditures so you wouldn’t need as much 2027 revenue to cover expenditures whether that translates to a cut in the mill levy or a rebate or something else,” he said. “That would be a decision for the board to make next year when the numbers are known for certain, but while there is a path to amend the budget as early as January 2026, that does not include amending or reducing the mill levy.”
Unfortunately, Rhodes said, this means the mill levy is locked in at the rate in the adopted budget now in the office of County Clerk Stacia Long for processing for taxpayer notifications to be sent out in late 2025.
Following Rhodes’ presentation of options for the FY 2026 budget, commissioners and Administrator April Warden briefly discussed what should be done.
Vice Chairman Steve Helm said the commission needs to get to work on the budget in January and openly discuss cuts he proposed earlier this year in budget work sessions.
“I don’t expect them to be adopted, but I expect discussion on them,” Helm said. “To clarify, my cuts did not result in one personnel layoff, not a reduction in employee benefits.”
Many constituents have advocated for the hiring of a chief financial officer. Warden said she believes the county already has a financial advisor in auditor Dustin Ormiston, who meets with commissioners in budget sessions.
Many taxpayers have also criticized some of the open records obtained from Warden and other county staff, but she emphasized she is not the only source of information.
“There are several sources of information, and we have been able to look at some of the suggestions Commissioner Helm had and can provide you that information,” she said.
Warden said during a recent audit, it was suggested the county look at the 18 areas in which the county is required to provide services, as well as areas that are not required to see where money could be saved and to see what it would difference could be made if the non-required services were not provided.
Warden said taxpayers are welcome to discuss areas they feel county leaders missed when trying to make budget cuts.
“If there are other areas you feel we’ve missed that we need to address, please let us know so we can get that information back to you and what it could to help the budget,” she said.
Commissioner Todd Stanton reminded county leaders of existing complaints that could invalidate the mill increase.
“It’s also important the public remain aware we still have two appeals that are active with the Board of Tax Appeals over this matter,” he said. “We don’t know how that’s going to go, but they are still active.”
Commissioner Presephoni Fuller said the safety of both county employees and citizens is her biggest priority.
“That requires constant training and updates,” she said.
Fuller added commissioners are elected in part to handle situations such as the current budget.
“You can also unelect them if you don’t like what they’re saying,” she said. “We are here to try to do the best job we can. We are working hard, and we’re listening to what you’re saying. We’re going to address some of the issues we can address and get you answers to some of these questions. There’s nothing hidden here. Nobody’s hiding anything.”
Fuller said whatever information is put out needs to be provided in the same manner with each request.
“It needs to be in black and white and believable and a certified source so we can move forward as a community, we can calm this community down and know we’re not trying to rip you off or line our pockets with money as it’s been said,” she said. “We’re trying to work for the betterment of this community.”
Stanton said the legal opinion Rhodes gave is in an area of law that is quite new without case precedence and likely no rulings from BOTA or the Kansas Attorney General’s office.
“There’s very little to go on here other than people making opinions,” Stanton said.
Chairman Scott Carr said before January, constituents need to make known which services they feel need to be cut.
“If that’s the only way we can save some of the money, what services do you want cut?” he said.
Stanton said capital expenditures and salaries need to be looked at as well.
“Yes or no on either one of those, and then just look at an across-the-board reduction if there’s not agreement,” he said.
