Commission overlooks approval of 2026 budget in Monday's session

By Charlene Sims

info@linncountyjournal.com

MOUND CITY – On Monday, Sept. 29, the Linn County Commissioners approved and signed budget approval sign-off documents for the Scot Loyd Group. Those documents state that the accounting firm had completed the work it had been contracted to do. That work included revenue neutral budgets for Linn County, Linn County Sewer District No. 1, Linn County Cemetery Districts Nos. 1 and 4 and the Linn County Rural Fire District No. 1.

“This is just for the Scot Loyd Group and the commissioners are agreeing that the group did what they were hired to do,” County Clerk Danielle Souza told the commissioners.

Commissioners Jim Johnson and Jason Hightower both said that they had reviewed the budgets and agreed with them, but no motion was made to adopt the Linn County budget.

County officials have acknowledged that voting to adopt the budget was overlooked at Monday’s meeting and plan to make that vote next Monday, Oct. 6.

However, a budget timeline published by the Kansas Department of Administration, says that the “Governing body certifies budget to County Clerk by Oct. 1. County Clerk MUST receive certified budget by 5 p.m. Oct. 1 or the County Clerk shall use the previous year’s budget information and amount of ad valorem tax to be levied for such taxing subdivision.”

In a budget workshop meeting on Aug. 25, Loyd had told the commissioners that the budget should be completed and published by Sept. 20 and forwarded to the state by Oct. 1. At that time the commissioners set budget workshops for Sept. 15, 22, and 29 so they could figure out a way to make more than $800,000 plus in cuts to meet a revenue neutral budget.  

At the Sept. 22 budget workshop, the Linn County Commissioners worked on paring down the 2026 budget and tentatively made some decisions. The approval vote for the budget will have to be made in a regular meeting. The sheriff’s budget and road shop budgets took the biggest hits so far. 

Commissioner Alison Hamilton said that the sheriff’s budget and the road department were cut $50,000 and $40,000.

Discussion continued over from the regular commission meeting about doing away with the economic development department in 2026. Commissioner Jason Hightower had expressed in the regular meeting that he did not “think that the county had been getting a lot of bang for their buck.” 

He said that he felt that the commission had the former economic development director working in circles and assigning other tasks that weren’t really what they were supposed to be doing.

Hamilton said she had concerns about eliminating the committees and programs that were under the economic development director. 

Johnson said, “I asked this question earlier. But the last time we talked it was $800,000 is what it was off. And, it’s because of that $1 million that we found?”

Scot Loyd, the CPA contracted to help Linn County with the budget, said that the county had adjusted things.

Johnson continued,”So we took half of that off and took half of that off. But we put the other half in capital outlay or contingency, and it’s still there is what I’m saying. Just that we were over-budgeted a million dollars in the budget, right?”

“That’s right, absolutely,” said Loyd. “And the cash carry over in the ’26 column that I have now might be off just a little bit because of the economic development.”        

Hightower suggested that the remaining $143,186 that needed to be cut be taken out of the county’s contingency fund. He explained, “That’s why I was bringing up the economic development. I thought if we look at it from the standpoint of getting us there and then took the rest out of contingency it would be the easiest places to cut and maintain where we need to be."

Hightower said that, rather than go back and take a little out of each budget, this was easier. This is where the money would come from if any of the other budgets went over.

Johnson said that he had contacted Wade Teagarden about whether any monies could be taken out of the fair board budget. Teagarden was out of town and had not gotten back with Johnson yet.

Hamilton asked about merit increases and the cost of living adjustment (COLA). She questioned whether the COLA had been added to any of the budgets. Souza said that department heads had been told to turn in their budgets without COLA being added. However, merit increases had been put in the budgets.

“I just wanted to make sure that I understood that correctly,” Hamilton said.

Souza explained how a COLA would change the pay matrix, everything in the pay matrix would incrementally increase. She said that a merit increase just moves the individual up a step on the pay scale.

Loyd explained the costs of the COLA increases. He said that a 3% COLA would add $267,644  or .689 mills to the budget. He continued, saying that 2% COLA would be $178,429 or .459 mills and a 1% would be $89,215 or .23 mills.

Loyd said that a COLA could be added in 2026. He told them that the budget doesn’t drive the COLA, the COLA is based on whether you have the funding to perform it. For an example, he explained, if revenue, like sales tax, went up from what had been planned for, the commissioners would have the money to pay COLA to the employees.

Loyd told the commissioners about one county during COVID who did not want to lock in a COLA and thus increase the pay matrix but instead paid a one-time adjustment, bonus, to the employees. He said there are different ways the commission could offer a COLA in the future. 

Hightower said, “So, on the COLA we did not do any of the cuts or anything to the insurance or the savings that we explored that would have made it possible to trim that out and pay for that COLA, right?"

Johnson said that it was doable then that the county could get down to revenue neutral by cutting the economic development budget and the public works assistant job position and taking the rest out of the contingency fund.

Hightower said, “I don’t think that Jesse (Walton, the public works administrator) is wanting that money to go away from his department. I think he’s wanting that to go into special equipment to rebuild those accounts, is that how you took it?”

Johnson replied, “Could be, but what I’m saying is we’re there. We can get there. You know what I’m saying.”

Hightower said he felt that they could get the budget down to revenue neutral and peel a little bit out of the contingency to make that work.

Other budget options discussed for future consideration were the school resource officers (SRO) and paying for the ambulance service with sales tax money.

Johnson brought up Miami County only having a SRO at one private school which paid the county $50,000 a year for that service. Johnson compared that to Linn County which was receiving $12,000 a year each from Pleasanton and Jayhawk. Prairie View paid $36,000 for three schools.

Hightower suggested looking into shifting the ambulance service cost over to sales tax. He said it would have to be put on the ballot to get it approved but that would take it off of the property tax. By moving it to the sales tax anybody driving through Linn County would be paying their part instead of it just being the landowners in Linn County.

Loyd said that there were three times during the year that an election for sales tax can be held in Kansas, the first Tuesday in March, at the primary the first Tuesday in August, or at the general election, the first Tuesday in November. 

County Counselor Jacklyn Paletta will look into what sales tax money can be used for and whether Linn County could add another 1% sales tax. Linn County already collects a 1% sales tax to pay off the bond to construct the Justice Center.