[3:58] like to call the RNR meeting to order and we'll do the flag salute.

[4:08] appointed to the flag of United States of America and to the republic for which

[4:14] it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice

[4:20] for all.

[4:24] » Do you need to say something? >> Nope.

[4:26] » Okay. >> That's what I thought.

[4:30] » Like to welcome everybody to a revenue neutral rate hearing. The purpose of

[4:37] this hearing is to listen to listen and answer to objections from tax relating

[4:43] to the revenue neutral rate and the proposed tax rate as required by candid

[4:48] statute 79-2988.

[4:52] This hearing will now be open for comments and each person will have three

[4:56] minutes to voice their concerns. So

[5:02] Eddie Kyle, be honest with you. I've looked through your budget.

[5:07] I don't have any major concerns at a high level. You guys are very, very

[5:12] conservative. I think you're doing a good job.

[5:16] As a taxpayer, to me, there's really no reason to complain about taxes at a

[5:21] county level, but I pay a lot of taxes and I look at all the different boards

[5:26] that have taxing capabilities and impact. So, you as a board, what do you

[5:31] suggest I do? I can complain to you, but to me there's

[5:36] those values there. So, who do I voice my concerns to

[5:44] » the state? The jo uh where do we get some banging

[5:50] of our buck here? >> I think we got to start with the state,

[5:53] » okay? >> Because they're the ones we all know

[5:56] property taxes are too high, >> right?

[6:00] But we've got they put on the counties 18 different

[6:04] » mandates >> mandated deals that the counties have to

[6:09] fund with no money from the state >> and they keep giving exemptions tax

[6:14] exemptions all the time to different corporations and different entities.

[6:19] » These tax exemptions can you expand on that

[6:22] » like public utilities that type of entities?

[6:29] basically anything if they get it through

[6:33] » counties deal. >> Yeah. Data centers.

[6:36] » Data centers. >> That type of stuff.

[6:38] » I think they did away with watercraft and all that last year, didn't they?

[6:42] » I mean, that's a huge And every time they do that, you've got to fill the

[6:46] gap. >> Yes. It goes back on real estate or, you

[6:48] know, >> real estate.

[6:50] » So, does Pratt County have a lot of tax exemptions for industry?

[6:54] » No. >> State mandated?

[6:57] » Yeah. I mean, it's all mandated through the state. We can't

[7:01] » we can't change that. >> So, but then you got the different

[7:04] boards. I mean, I've looked at your fluff sheet and none of those items line

[7:09] items to me I would touch. Humane society, the hospital. I mean, some of

[7:14] that stuff is a >> it's a must.

[7:16] » Yeah, it's a must. >> And I think if you cut it, you'd have

[7:19] more push back than people like me complaining about taxes. So,

[7:23] » they're all good entities. >> Yes.

[7:26] » Yeah. So, I guess I'm not one to say what you're doing is wrong, but we are

[7:32] overt taxed. In inflation is coming up. The tax burden is falling back to the

[7:37] elderly because of the baby boomers were aging out.

[7:42] » So, you've got a jo that has a board that can tax it

[7:48] with no checks and balances. You got a board for a hospital that people like me

[7:53] look at. You need the hospital, but is it

[7:58] sustainable at its current situation? I don't know.

[8:02] » And that's why we got beer in it. >> Okay. So, as a taxpayer,

[8:09] you've got board members that have sustained that situation the last couple

[8:14] years. The taxpayers come into that. What do we have to say that we can come

[8:19] back and say maybe we want a different leadership board

[8:24] instead of leaving that one in place to manage it going forward.

[8:28] » I agree with you 100% on that. Uh taxpayer money has to be used. I think

[8:36] we need to restructure how that's governed.

[8:39] » Most definitely. >> Uh right now they're a private entity.

[8:42] They don't have to give financials. They don't have to

[8:46] do any of that. Correct. >> I mean I mean

[8:49] » there are some reporting requirements in the lease

[8:51] » for us, >> right?

[8:53] » But I mean as far as the public uh but if taxpayer money is going to be

[8:58] used, it'll be a whole different. >> Yeah. Thank you. The only suggestion I

[9:04] have and it may be one you guys looked at and it may not be feasible but

[9:10] insurance. Your insurance rates have went through the roof,

[9:13] » right? So, I assume that's health insurance.

[9:16] » Yes,

[9:20] » I already did, too. But we made some changes this year and it's actually

[9:24] cheaper, but we had to pull this building out

[9:28] » and then pay down to >> with a higher a much higher deductible.

[9:32] » Yeah. Like a $200,000 deductible. You know, I mean, needing a roof, so we'll

[9:37] probably just going to end up paying for it. You know what I'm saying?

[9:39] » Yes. Again, you guys I I think you're very good at managing your and you're

[9:46] very conservative with managing your the only thing I again [clears throat]

[9:52] who else do I complain to state exam so on so forth jo which to me I don't know

[10:00] they were at what 40ome mills they think they dropped to 38 you guys have got 65

[10:08] so I mean that's a substantial amount of money.

[10:11] » Yeah. >> The only thing health insurance I'm

[10:14] going to go back to it selfinsure. Pratt County as a whole could not sustain that

[10:20] risk. >> But have you guys thought about co-oping

[10:24] with counties around you and maybe looking at selfinsure

[10:28] » and and you may have already done it. >> Yeah, some of them are with the K

[10:35] deal and we were with them for a very short time. It's not.

[10:42] It might have been cheaper, but our clerk's office was handling all the

[10:46] claims and doing all the labor, and it just wasn't something that we could

[10:50] sustain in her office just because it's just

[10:54] more work. Uh, you know, our health insurance, we've

[11:00] had years where we've overused. >> Several years.

[11:04] » Several years. In fact, this last year we overused again.

[11:08] » Yeah. >> Uh you know, and so we go out to bid

[11:12] and people look at that and nobody bids on us at Blue Cross.

[11:19] So it's one of those things, you know, you can't control what happens to

[11:24] people. >> Well, I I know what it does with my

[11:26] health insurance. I know what I'm looking to increase at a personal level.

[11:29] So I can imagine the county level with the headcount that you have and exposure

[11:34] » different diseases that may occur. I mean Yeah.

[11:36] » And you know then to make that work >> just on top of that, you know, we've

[11:41] eliminated a position in the treasur's office. We've eliminated a position in

[11:45] the clerk's office. We've eliminated a couple of positions on the road. And we

[11:50] still have people working for $167 an hour here. And we need to get those up

[11:56] because we can't get people hired. Yeah, because they want to start at 20 and I

[12:01] don't blame them. >> Uh that's a real concern of mine that

[12:06] we're not, you know, get people hired. Yeah, I could raise taxes a bunch and

[12:12] get everybody's wages up, but I we're trying not to do that. We're trying to I

[12:17] don't know what we're trying to do. We're trying to fix it, but we

[12:21] » But uh you know, for people to say, "Well, you

[12:24] need to make cuts." We we've made cuts. the fact we're spending $50,000 worth of

[12:29] cash to our employee benefit fund.

[12:34] So, that's not a good way to budget either.

[12:38] » But again, >> to keep taxes down, we're doing what we

[12:41] can. Plus, we're still trying to build up our cash reserves, which we're

[12:45] spending them. >> But the perception is people pay money

[12:49] to Pratt County. >> Yeah. Yeah.

[12:51] » They don't understand all the other entities that flow into that. Yeah.

[12:55] » Yeah. And I think it would be beneficial as a

[12:59] commission maybe explain that to the different taxpayers. You guys understand

[13:04] it 100%. >> Us laying out here looking at your tax

[13:08] burden. We don't understand all that. >> It's a bill comes from the pract.

[13:15] » It kind of goes back full circle to your first question though. You asked, you

[13:18] know, who who do I bring my concerns to? >> Exactly.

[13:22] » And it really is a state level concern. I mean, if you talk to DJ, their

[13:25] appraiser, over the course of his career,

[13:29] I mean, there was we went we started with getting rid of personal property

[13:33] exemptions. We're getting we've moved over over 30 years. Pretty much

[13:37] everything got exempted in personal property. There's very little that gets

[13:41] taxed personal property wise now compared to when he started. We have

[13:45] massive real property exemptions for wind, solar, data centers, any type of

[13:51] renewable. All of those are state level, you know, and there's nothing

[13:55] » and they tell us we can't tax it. So, >> you know, there's nothing that my guys

[13:59] can do other than what you can do, which is voice their concerns to your

[14:04] legislators. >> So, the solar farm, the wind farm,

[14:08] they're tax exempt at a state level. Yep.

[14:10] » State level. And >> across the state, even local level can't

[14:13] tax. >> New new projects are 10-year exemptions.

[14:17] Renewable new projects. The original wind farms are lifetime exemptions. So

[14:22] that statute was changed. I don't know what year it changed, but originally

[14:26] there were lifetime exemptions. It went to a 10-year exemption. But if you fell,

[14:30] if you you applied and completed your project

[14:34] before the statute changed, you maintain your lifetime exemption. Absent there

[14:39] not being a repower that fundamentally changes the project. Again, it's

[14:43] something that [clears throat] we have no control over. Again, I I agree 100%

[14:48] what you're saying. So, there's very little benefit for me to complain to you

[14:54] at your level. >> Yeah. Unless you see something that

[14:57] we're just absolutely not doing our job. >> I didn't get down in the weeds of your

[15:02] day-to-day expenses. Okay. I don't I didn't look at your capital

[15:05] improvements.

[15:08] » The health was a big one. Can't touch that. I can't touch that.

[15:14] No, there's really >> there's nothing in there to cut.

[15:16] » Yeah. >> Without without

[15:18] » impacting people. Yeah. >> Humane Society. $15,000 a year. Really?

[15:23] That's all they get? You know, and that's senior citizen 221,000 a year.

[15:29] » That's not a lot of money. >> No.

[15:31] » No. >> And you know, give our department heads

[15:35] a big pat on the back paying $5 diesel. >> Yes. Yeah. I saw that right. and and you

[15:42] know the when they come in and talk to us, we talk about the fuel prices and so

[15:47] they're having to adjust their budgets on the fly and so far they're doing

[15:52] pretty darn good. I you know I mean when you get a you know road diesel bill for

[15:58] 76 $80,000 a month. >> Yes. That

[16:01] » you know that eats up your budget pretty fast.

[16:05] » Well I I think from my perspective you guys a pretty good job. appreciate that

[16:11] » and I think it would be benefit you greatly if you kind of help explain some

[16:17] of that other taxing entities that this is not all well this money is not going

[16:20] to pra county >> even that your tax money you're spending

[16:24] doesn't cover >> what 60% of your overall budget

[16:28] » yeah like 12 million 13 million I think is what we're collecting

[16:32] » y so you didn't raise you're looking at raising your neutral rate based upon the

[16:37] value of the property so therefore your mill is going to stay the same.

[16:40] » Yeah. I mean, the last two years, Northern Natural,

[16:46] and I don't know how to explain. >> Yeah, I live out there.

[16:49] » But apparently, they moved $28 million worth of equipment

[16:53] » out of the county. >> Out of the county. So, if you go back

[16:56] and look at our mill levy, it just it sinks because we lost $28

[17:02] million in two years. Well, this year they brought some of it back. What 13

[17:07] million, something like that. So, we're trying to recapture that.

[17:13] » Okay. >> Do you understand that? I mean,

[17:15] » I think the kicker on that too is uh I'm an auditor also by trade, not just bud

[17:22] help with budget. And at the state level, it's called PVD, property

[17:28] valuation department. And that's where the state assess runs through. And just

[17:32] like this example here with u correct me if I'm wrong here u but u this is what's

[17:39] really interesting about craft county just exactly what he said where northern

[17:43] has really doesn't have to have any accountability to the state in a sense

[17:49] the way that they >> yeah nobody checks on what they they

[17:53] self file >> except they do they did work hard to um

[17:58] get that changed and now there is a cap on that if it changes If it increases or

[18:02] decreases by 5% 3% >> um then that triggers an audit of that

[18:08] and that just got changed this year um through a lot of hard work

[18:12] » they self audit self value move it from one location to another

[18:17] thus that impacts the local tax base >> and we don't know that until pretty much

[18:22] » the middle of the budget. >> Yeah. Yeah. I mean we're we're in they

[18:26] don't come out with that till like June 1st.

[18:28] » June Yeah. June 1st is stay. >> We've got to have our budget done in a

[18:31] couple weeks later. >> I'm in Cunningham school district. So I

[18:35] I I >> got a school districts as a whole. I

[18:41] have >> I think Cunningham has done a very good

[18:44] job of managing their money in this school level.

[18:47] » So and and the value of your home. And this is what I tell people. I know. I

[18:52] know. I'm just going to give you a real life example. I'm just going to use you.

[18:58] I don't know what you're holding worth, but say the county says it's worth

[19:01] 300,000. You don't think it's worth that. It's

[19:05] only 200,000. You go to sell and a realer tells you,

[19:10] "Hey, I think I can get 300,000 out of this home." You're going to take that,

[19:14] right? >> Oh, yeah. Every time.

[19:15] » So, she puts it on the market or he by the end of the day, somebody's

[19:20] offered you 320,000. >> You're going to take that.

[19:24] » Oh, every time. And that that is what the data

[19:26] » and and that tells the whole market >> people got money and all the home values

[19:31] go up. >> It's not a lot of people think that we

[19:35] sit in here and we figure our budget and say, "Oh, we need this much money. Go

[19:38] raise their taxes up that much." That's not how that works.

[19:42] » I've had a conversation with you. >> An appraiser has to have their value

[19:47] appraised value within a certain percent above the selling price and below the

[19:52] selling price. That's statemandated also.

[19:54] » And they >> and they come down and audit us every

[19:57] year to make sure we're within a certain percentage of what we're doing.

[20:02] » I wouldn't want your job and I would want his job. How about that for

[20:06] » I think our job's easier than his. >> Yes. So yeah, that does make sense. I

[20:11] understand. >> I'll just tell you one more thing. I

[20:13] think you know when you put dollars with it you kind of so let's just use uh I

[20:18] think in the in two years I know it was 12 or 14 million and 7 million drop in

[20:24] assessed value. So let's just use 21 million in two years. So if you move the

[20:30] decimal point three to the left that's $21,000

[20:35] per mill that we lost. So when you multiply that times I think at that time

[20:41] it was about 59 58 58 or 59. You multiply that times 21,000 that's a

[20:48] chunk of change. And we had to figure out how we were going to make that work.

[20:52] And the other thing is I I kind of kidly say this but you know the state pushes

[20:57] down on you RNR RNR R&R you know all this. Oh I like I've I've asked them a

[21:03] couple times. Why don't you go under RNR? you know, you you manage your

[21:08] income and all that the same way that we're trying to ask because they think

[21:12] out here we're just I do six counties and and a lot of cities and they just

[21:17] think we're just spending money willy-nilly, you know? I mean, just just

[21:20] we're just spending it and that's not true. I mean,

[21:23] » I'm not looking at your budget. It's not true.

[21:25] » No, [clears throat] it's not true. >> They think we're building pools and

[21:29] » but the perception is building a pavilion out there. you know,

[21:34] the city of Pratt want to tax it increased to offset the city

[21:41] personal property tax, but as people in the county would pay that.

[21:45] » And we see no benefit from >> so again, I don't know if there's any

[21:50] benefit in in joining with other counties around you to try to leverage

[21:54] some of that buy and >> schools did that when I was on the

[21:58] school board any value. >> We pulled our our health insurance

[22:03] because that way it gave us a little bit more leverage with Blue Cross if they

[22:09] tried to raise it. You know, if you get six schools pull out,

[22:13] » that's a big chunk of change for them. It gets their attention

[22:16] » real fast. >> I mean, the other obvious problem is the

[22:20] usage. County's usage is not attractive to any other

[22:24] » Yeah. No other county would say look at ours,

[22:28] man. I don't want >> because of the

[22:30] » but [clears throat] that's aging workforce a lot of factors you know

[22:35] » that's true but I mean I don't know maybe fuel asphalt is is there anything

[22:42] that you co-op with that you can leverage some of your mind

[22:48] I don't know I that's just >> yeah and I don't know you know I'm just

[22:54] going to use asphalt you know we use one company I think there's only like one

[22:59] company that does that. >> Yeah.

[23:01] » Two. That's it. But yeah, it's one >> all the

[23:05] kind the same with the insurance more so this insurance at the city level.

[23:09] There's only one that literally insures this is property insurance basically all

[23:13] the cities across the state of Kansas. >> Yeah. EMC and you know

[23:19] » it's just there's just a lot of things like that.

[23:24] » Well, again don't >> you got any more ideas?

[23:27] » [laughter]

[23:29] » We'll take them all. >> Yes.

[23:31] » No, I just was kind of looking at it your supply chain being able to leverage

[23:36] your buying power whether it's in health insurance or

[23:40] asphalt or fuel. >> That's something we can look into.

[23:43] » But it's, you know, >> so the public's aware too. I mean, so we

[23:46] start talking about budget early May. like we have budget study

[23:50] sessions which are open to the public and these types of conversations

[23:54] actually do happen in there to try to figure out hey how can we we can stay

[23:59] where we're at or be close to where we're at. I mean the the difference the

[24:03] way I look at the difference and Sasha did a good job putting this together

[24:06] between R and R and where we're at $360,000

[24:11] more in Blue Cross Blue Shields premium approximately 160,000 more in fuel cost.

[24:18] Uh the cola is an extra 200,000 roughly. That explains the difference right

[24:24] there. Just that >> just that I mean we haven't done

[24:27] anything extravagant. We haven't Yeah. Yeah. Our air conditioning bill in

[24:34] his courthouse might throw us over, but yeah.

[24:37] » Well, I do want to thank Sasha for putting this off for me. Kind of walk me

[24:41] through it. I haven't seen I haven't looked at your capital improvement

[24:44] stuff. >> We do have we do have a plan. If you if

[24:48] you want to >> tell them we had a nice binder down,

[24:51] » take a look at it. But uh I just again the only thing I suggest is

[24:59] how you guys help me explain to your layman that this is not all Pratt County

[25:04] taxes that when I write that check it doesn't all go to county

[25:10] » and there's a lot of boards that have taxing capabilities

[25:15] that to me there's >> KSA has a you know a statute for it but

[25:19] there's no checks and balances like it is with the elected officials.

[25:23] Gotcha. >> Because all the school boards, [snorts]

[25:27] cities, township, >> townships, cemetery boards, all that

[25:32] » comes out of the by county. >> Yes.

[25:36] » Yeah. >> What it is

[25:39] » and the state used to give us money. It's called the local valorum

[25:45] whatever >> briefly. Yeah, labr took it away because

[25:49] he broke the state >> and then they bought us and finally

[25:54] passed a law what two years ago >> and did away with the whole thing.

[26:00] So, and and the reason they were giving us money is they won't allow us to tax

[26:04] fuel and certain stuff just they get

[26:10] » Well, that's really all I had. Thank you guys for your service. Appreciate you

[26:15] coming in. Yeah, we appreciate it. >> One thing you ask and I think this is so

[26:19] hard. I've done this for 44. This is my 44th year

[26:22] » and I love to explain the budget. We we talk about in these meetings.

[26:27] » Scott has to go up to the state and >> which I did tell him too that you were a

[26:31] great >> Okay. You're the individual.

[26:33] » This is Scott. He's our >> and I love I love to do that. But what's

[26:38] really interesting is we did this at Marian County. We had the we about

[26:44] probably about seven years ago uh we went it's kind of when RNR first came in

[26:48] and so we said let's let's just all have a meeting evening meeting I think we set

[26:52] it at 7:00 and let's all understand the city budget and the county budget okay

[26:57] at Marriott I think there may have been 10 people

[27:02] there I don't even know if there were 10 people there and nobody won I mean I

[27:07] just till RNR came I I I've done these budget hearings Like today there's a few

[27:12] here, you know, but usually there's one maybe nobody that you know shows up.

[27:17] » There were I was at Stafford County last week for something else for there, but

[27:22] they had nobody. >> Nobody shows up. Yeah. Most we've ever

[27:25] had since I've been here is five. And you can see we you know we zoom it. I'm

[27:29] sure people watch the Zoom. Yeah. >> We only have four online plus you guys.

[27:33] And this is every I mean we encourage >> every time they get questions on the

[27:38] budget I encourage people to not only come to this but to come to our study

[27:42] session. >> Absolutely.

[27:44] » Watch. Yeah. >> Yeah.

[27:46] » There's never any in the school either. >> It's easier to be playing when you don't

[27:50] have anybody to >> so

[27:53] » but again it's very intimidating at times to come before the board. You guys

[27:58] do this every day. Yeah. >> Rest of us don't. Right. So, I

[28:02] understand why it would be somewhat intimidating to come and voice your

[28:06] concerns, reverse complaints. >> It is. But, you know, we look at this

[28:12] as, you know, we work for you guys and and we need to hear from

[28:16] » Yeah. >> You know, people stop me in on the

[28:18] street. That's one thing. >> Yes.

[28:20] » You know, I can talk to them there. But, uh,

[28:23] » yeah, they come in or send an email or there's a thousand ways to communicate

[28:27] in today's world. Yes. >> And we do welcome that.

[28:29] » Yeah. I think

[28:32] » I tell people come to meetings every week.

[28:34] » Yeah, absolutely. >> Or watch it and then if you got

[28:37] questions, email me, >> call me up.

[28:40] » Back to back to something they said earlier. This is this is across all but

[28:44] I don't know in Pratt you can you drive golf carts in town in

[28:49] » US recently with

[28:52] » so those got you know all the personal property got exempted and I don't think

[28:57] people really think about that but that really adds up quickly. So, I had this

[29:00] one, I don't do the county, but it's Wilson Lake. Uh I don't know if I told

[29:04] that story here, but uh when the when the uh watercraft got exempted here a

[29:10] couple years ago, uh the guy went out and built a $150,000

[29:16] uh housebo and that became his residence on the dock at at Wilson Lake and that

[29:22] got totally exempted. And see, there's things like that that

[29:26] happen that, you know, people's gonna whatever the law is, [laughter] they're

[29:31] just going to try to figure out ways to, you know, get around it. So we just do

[29:34] the best we can here I think to uh you know be fair you know and try to do it

[29:39] in a way because I think the hardest thing is to be fair to the employees you

[29:44] know and if you put yourself in their shoes um I think the first year I was

[29:50] down here I don't want to get too far in the weeds here but uh I went home told

[29:53] my wife um uh I went by McDonald's this is right right after co I think I

[29:59] started what what year 23 22 budget 21 budget. So I went by there and they were

[30:05] advertising $15 to work in McDonald's, you know, in the back. And we had just

[30:10] had a conversation because we were trying to get the ambulance department

[30:13] back. It was kind of underwater. >> And the starting salary was $13.89.

[30:20] And I told this is I'm not this is just this is reality. This is everywhere.

[30:24] This is not just in Pratt. I said, "You want to someone $15 in the back back or

[30:30] the dish washing dishes at McDonald's save you on the side of the road or do

[30:34] you want somebody at $1389?" I mean, that's Yeah.

[30:38] » And that's sad, you know, cuz that that's

[30:40] » Yeah. So, I I could tell stories like that. I mean, it's just it's just

[30:44] amazing >> trying to trying to balance, you know,

[30:46] the the taxpayer with trying to keep good like you were saying earlier, good

[30:50] works work >> and be able to hire, which is the road

[30:53] department. It's a problem right now. Yeah. I mean, we're down

[30:57] » I don't even know now. 11 12 >> under department is that?

[31:01] » Yeah. >> Last time it was nine. So, you're

[31:03] » I mean, you know, they can go drive a truck for a company and make a lot more

[31:06] money than they're making. >> Yeah.

[31:07] » Now, years ago, the benefits here kind of made up for that, but the benefits

[31:13] don't buy you food. >> No.

[31:15] » Right. >> That's correct.

[31:17] » So, it's going to come to a head before too long.

[31:22] » And that's where you're all at. where we're all going to be all going to come

[31:26] » a reckoning for budget versus expense versus

[31:31] » you know you got a lot of people in this community on fixed incomes and seeing

[31:36] » the >> and we talk about that in our budget

[31:38] deal. >> Yeah.

[31:39] » You know how how do we keep this down because you know social security isn't

[31:44] increasing >> reception is a lot of it. Yeah. and

[31:47] building a pavilion out east at the force complex for very few individuals

[31:53] compared to the old county >> is not a good look

[31:57] but you know it's I don't think it's taxf funded by the county level but

[32:01] people on a fixed income look at that going

[32:04] » all my taxes are going up and we're doing this out here my taxes are going

[32:09] up we got exposure at that hospital we need that hospital

[32:13] » yes we do we have some people that >> don't want us to spend spend a dime on

[32:18] it and we've got some people that do. >> You call it

[32:23] situation. >> Yeah,

[32:25] » we have to have healthc care in this county.

[32:27] » Yes, you do. >> We can't just close the ER for two

[32:31] months or whatever. Find somebody else. >> I think your entities surrounding the

[32:36] county look at a lot of not so much their core values but

[32:42] add-ons, fluff if you will. And I think the reckoning is going to come to where

[32:46] your core values are going to come back to where they need to be

[32:49] » instead of playing football for girls at the juke.

[32:54] I don't know what that expense per year is, but that's

[32:58] » high school now. >> Yeah. Again, I'm not I'm not picking on,

[33:02] you know, title n >> I know,

[33:04] » but it's it's another race over there. >> Yeah, exactly. So, as a taxpayer, those

[33:11] are some of the things I look at. Is that what bang on my buck can I get?

[33:17] » Yeah, we've had people in here complaining we need to buy more rock.

[33:21] Rock trip crippled. I'm one of those individuals.

[33:25] » We understand. >> We'd love to buy more rock.

[33:29] » We We really would, but >> And there was a time we could have

[33:33] bought it, but they were out. >> Well, it broke down. Yeah,

[33:37] » because we get it from Sun City down there and they're broke down most of the

[33:41] time. But, uh, you know, if we go over to Eastern Kansas, get that rock and

[33:45] haul it back, the expense really gets more than 3x.

[33:49] » Yeah. >> Yeah. And

[33:51] » and to me, that's a capital improvement project. Yeah. That's not a maintenance

[33:54] project. It's a capital. >> Well, even our sand pit, we're going to

[33:56] run out of sand and we need to start looking for another sand pit.

[34:00] » Yeah. >> So, that's going to be that's in our

[34:02] capital improvement plan. So, we've got to save money for that.

[34:08] The HVAC system in this building is basically shot.

[34:13] » A rough shot again.

[34:16] » Well, look at the mold on our [laughter]

[34:22] » I fear for mark safety some days.

[34:26] » Yeah, there you guys do a lot.

[34:31] Not a full budget. How about that? >> Yes. And we're trying because we pay the

[34:39] same taxes as everybody else does, too. >> Yeah.

[34:44] » Thank you. >> Appreciate you coming.

[34:45] » Thank you. >> Yeah.

[34:47] » Gary, you have anything? >> I just came to listen and gather

[34:51] information. >> Still appreciate that.

[34:53] » Yes. Yep. Ma'am, you got any questions?

[35:00] » I have too many to even bring up. [laughter]

[35:05] » Fire away. far away. And I, you know, this first county commission meeting

[35:08] I've been to, >> okay?

[35:09] » And the reason I'm here is because, believe it or not, my hairdresser was

[35:15] the one that was pushing it. It gave me a little flyer about the meetings,

[35:19] » okay, >> for this. And of course, the flyer just

[35:23] told the date and the time, so I didn't have a whole lot of information. The

[35:29] thing that I'm concerned about is the situation the hospital is in. And I know

[35:34] the hospital's counting. You know, as a now future or frequent blind person, I'm

[35:42] now concerned about the fact that we don't have ways to cross Main Street. Uh

[35:47] but that's not you. You're talking about the sports complex. Well, I coached for

[35:54] 40 years. I'm 100% in favor of that. It's magnificent, you know, but I

[35:59] thought other entities contributed like the school districts and the college.

[36:04] » Gotcha. >> You know, so I'm just kind of here and

[36:08] listening. The one thing and I the one thing I'd say that I wish could happen

[36:15] is to have a meeting in the evenings instead of nine o'clock in the morning.

[36:20] Now, I'm a morning person, all right? But we used to run a business here in

[36:26] Pratt. There's no way my husband could make a 9:00 meeting.

[36:30] » Gotcha. >> The reason,

[36:31] » you know, so if maybe every other week or something you met in the evening or

[36:37] something so people who are working could come

[36:41] » understand. Our normal meeting time is 2 o'clock in the afternoons.

[36:45] » That's worse. >> Yeah. Gotcha.

[36:47] » Yeah. And the reason we have it too because if we don't then we got to pay

[36:52] overtime to all the department heads that come in and

[36:56] » really >> Oh yeah. We can't just expect them to

[36:58] come in and not get paid. >> Aren't they under your employment?

[37:02] » Do what? >> Aren't they under your employment?

[37:06] » Yes. >> Most of them get paid hourly. Not a

[37:08] salary. >> That's why they're hourly.

[37:11] » I mean as a school district I went to a hell of a lot of meetings.

[37:15] » Yeah, I know you did. And they just said, "You will show up at this time."

[37:20] » Yeah. Well, >> whether it was convenient or not,

[37:22] » the IRS might look at us a little different than they do school districts.

[37:26] I guess >> I can't say when I came on, we were

[37:29] doing meetings at 4:00, which is still not past five, but the uh we didn't have

[37:35] any more people show up. >> Still didn't.

[37:37] » Yeah. Which is, you know, I >> And you can watch them on Zoom

[37:41] » and we encourage >> And then if you have questions, you can

[37:43] email. >> I have no idea how to watch it. I mean,

[37:46] I see the big screen. I can see there's a screen up there. Can't see the people,

[37:51] but is it How do you get to it? >> There's

[37:58] Mark, you want to explain? >> There's a link on crackount.org on the

[38:02] commission button. There is a link there that has a link. You just click it and

[38:08] it'll go to the latest YouTube video or you can go to all of You can look at the

[38:14] path one. >> Okay.org

[38:18] » and >> commission

[38:20] » commission. And then there's some choices under there. If you go to the

[38:24] agendas, you can you can look at past videos.

[38:27] » Be nice. >> Yep.

[38:29] » It's all >> agendas, minutes, and the

[38:32] » agendas and videos. >> There's several years worth on there.

[38:36] » Yeah. >> Pretty much since

[38:39] » and it's searchable, too. So, if you have a topic that you're wondering about

[38:42] when it was talked last, you know, you can you can search like budget and it

[38:47] would bring up every time budget was in the agenda or the minutes.

[38:50] » Okay. I appreciate, you know, I just decided I

[38:55] had to come. >> Oh, god.

[38:57] » Glad you did. Yeah. >> Because tax and you mentioned people who

[39:01] are on a stationary budget, you know, you get this much from the IRA or from

[39:06] the social security and a little bit of retirement. we have and every time

[39:12] things go up, it puts cake in things. >> It's rough.

[39:17] » Yeah, we we we talk about that a lot when we do our budget workshops

[39:23] » and

[39:26] you know, our department heads come in and sometimes they shoot for the moon

[39:30] and see what they get and sometimes they say, you know,

[39:35] and and you can't blame them. I mean, they're running under department and so

[39:39] then we got to balance, you know, what's really worth it and

[39:43] what's not, >> right?

[39:46] » I mean, our school board does the same thing. It's just what everybody does,

[39:50] you know, and it's hard. >> Even on the personal level, it's

[39:53] everybody [snorts] does the same thing. >> Exactly.

[39:56] » Yeah. Yeah. There's an inflation thing, but between insurance and

[40:02] » I may start putting beef in my backyard. Yeah, the insurance

[40:09] » may not even be able to afford to keep it. It won't be worth it

[40:15] for too long. >> And yet they're raking in billions of

[40:19] dollars a years. And they're using AI now to

[40:25] deny.

[40:32] » So that's all I have. Thank you. Thank you.

[40:34] » Thank you.

[40:38] » Anybody?

[40:41] Nobody's online is there?

[40:47] » Do you guys have any more discussions on revenue neutral

[40:54] rate? >> I don't

[40:56] » just say we're trying our darnest to keep taxes

[41:01] down. Absolutely. >> It's

[41:05] it's tough for people. We know it's tough for people and yet we have to

[41:09] provide a service of some kind and

[41:18] you know it just well even the juvenile deal.

[41:22] » Yeah. >> I didn't even bring that up. So, state

[41:25] legislature decided that they're going to take away the judge's

[41:30] discretion on whether they can lock up juveniles or not. So, now juveniles are

[41:37] going to be locked up. Instead of bringing them home and sending them home

[41:41] with grandma or something like that, they're going to be locked up. Guess who

[41:45] pays for that? >> The county.

[41:47] » The county does. So, uh,

[41:53] you know, that's just another mandate from the state

[41:58] down to us that we're going to pay for a law that they put out.

[42:06] » We got a budget of $2.3 million for the sheriff's project.

[42:13] » And we're already just in the six months that started couple of months. I think

[42:18] he's already over on juvenile line items >> by a lot.

[42:21] » Yeah, by quite a bit because it's $250 a night or something like that.

[42:26] » Keep a juvenile

[42:34] » and there's nothing we can do about >> there will be conversations at the state

[42:38] level and whether the state gets anything done. I'm talking not just

[42:43] juvenile talking about taxes in general. It's unclear to me and what it looks

[42:48] like unclear to me. >> But for there to be fundamental change,

[42:52] it's going to have to come at the top side of

[42:54] » Yeah. Yeah. Either how we figure the taxes or what they tax or that all comes

[43:01] from the state level.

[43:09] And I know there's a big push across the state to abolish property taxes.

[43:14] Well, that's great. What's going to make up the difference?

[43:18] » You just pulled it from one pot and moved it to another.

[43:20] » Yeah, >> that's all you're doing.

[43:22] » Yeah. >> The budget's not change. You just shift

[43:24] it. >> Can you imagine paying real high sales

[43:26] tax on $5 diesel? >> Yeah.

[43:34] » Or sales high dollar sales tax on anything.

[43:37] » Yeah. >> Yeah. Would be. It's going to have to go

[43:40] bill just went to 400 a week. >> Yeah.

[43:44] It's not. And I'm not saying I got any answers to

[43:48] it. I mean, they've got a job to do up there. They need to do it,

[43:53] but I don't have any answers.

[44:00] Well, this is a good time to ask questions of people that are look trying

[44:03] to get elected into those positions. >> Yeah.

[44:06] » And that's where we as people of the county state,

[44:11] » Yeah. [clears throat] Yeah, we need to be educated on

[44:13] » what to ask, who to ask, when to ask, >> right? Because some of those bills they

[44:18] proposed, thankfully got voted down in the legislative season back in February,

[44:25] March, >> would have really hurt.

[44:28] » It been substantially more difficult. >> It would people like I don't even know

[44:33] what bills you're talking about. >> Yeah, it's a big problem.

[44:38] » Communication. We don't want to engage, but we need we

[44:42] want to complain about it. So, how do we go investigate it? Try to become

[44:49] educated on it. Yeah. >> And then what do you do with that

[44:51] information? >> It's easy to complain. I'm good at it.

[44:54] » Oh, sure. We all are. >> Yeah.

[44:56] » I don't have a simple answer. I mean the information is available but like all

[45:02] the bills are online but I mean what you're talking about is getting people

[45:07] involved and educated and both of those are difficult tasks.

[45:12] » Yeah. >> I don't want to discourage you. I mean I

[45:17] would [laughter] to do what you can do and talk to your

[45:21] legislator. >> I mean you're 100% right. A lot of

[45:23] people won't say anything until affect somebody already passed.

[45:28] » Well, we have to see how that change is going to affect you six months to a year

[45:33] down the road. It's kind of tough at times, especially when you don't

[45:36] understand all the dynamics going into that decision.

[45:39] » Yeah. >> Yeah. You know, at the legislative

[45:42] level, the people that are voting on, they should be able to they should

[45:45] understand that. And when you ask them a question, they should be able to tell

[45:48] you how it's going to affect you. If they can't, that's a pretty good

[45:51] indicator that, you know, >> it's it's they just vote based upon how

[45:56] they're directed.

[46:00] » Yep.

[46:05] » Anything else, guys? Do I hear a motion to approve the RNR?

[46:11] » I'll make that motion. >> I'll second it.

[46:14] » It's been moved and seconded to approve the RNR rate this year for the county.

[46:19] I'm going to read the resolution before I say resolution before voted on the

[46:25] resolution. >> Yep.

[46:26] » Resolution number 09-08-2026. A resolution of the board of county

[46:32] commissioners of PR County Kansas to exceed the revenue neutral rate in its

[46:37] property tax levy for the tax year of 2027.

[46:41] Whereas the board of county commissioners of Pratt Kansas, Pratt

[46:44] County, Kansas is statutoily required to provide notice and hearing prior to

[46:49] exceeding the revenue neutral rate. And whereas the Pratt County clerk provided

[46:53] the notice of the hearing on the revenue neutral rate on August 13,

[46:58] 2026, August 20th, 2026, and August 27th, 2026

[47:05] via publication in the Tri County Tribune, and posted the notice on the

[47:10] Pratt County's website. And whereas a revenue neutral rate for

[47:14] the tax year 2027 for Pratt County was calculated at 62.655 655 mills by the

[47:21] Pratt County clerk. And whereas the budget proposed by the PRA board of

[47:26] county commissioners of Pratt County, Kansas for the tax year 2027 will

[47:31] require the levy of property tax rate exceeding the revenue neutral rate. And

[47:37] whereas the board of county commissioners of Pratt County, Kansas,

[47:40] held a hearing on September 8th, 2026, allowing all interested taxpayers an

[47:45] opportunity to be heard at the hearing. And whereas the board of county

[47:49] commissioners of Pratt County, Kansas, having heard testimony, has determined

[47:52] that it's the best interest of Pratt County to exceed the revenue neutral

[47:56] rate. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the board of county commissioners of Pra

[48:01] County, Kansas, as follows. The Pratt Pratt County shall leave a property tax

[48:06] rate which exceeds the revenue neutral rate of 62.655

[48:10] mills for the tax year 2027. This resolution shall take effect and be

[48:15] enforced immediately upon its adoption and shall remain in effect until further

[48:19] action is taken by the board of health county commissioners of Pratt County,

[48:24] Kansas. Adopted this sleep day of September 2026.

[48:28] » It's actually a roll call vote on this. So, I'm just going to call it yay or

[48:33] nay. Chairman Trinkle. >> Yay.

[48:39] » Commissioner Jones. >> Yes.

[48:42] Commissioner Shy. Yes.

[48:46] Motion passes. Constituent is certified and then you guys can execute the

[48:53] resolution.

[49:38] Do I hear a motion to close the revenue with neutral rate hearing?

[49:46] » So moved. >> I'll second.

[49:48] » Been moved and second to close a revenue rate hearing. All in favor say I.

[49:52] » I. >> Oppose. same signs. Revenue neutral rate

[49:57] hearing is closed. Now, do I hear a

[50:03] motion to open the county budget hearing?

[50:08] » I'll make that motion. >> I'll second.

[50:10] » It's been moved and seconded to open the county budget hearing. All in favor say

[50:14] I. >> I. Oppose. Same sign. And uh each person

[50:19] will have three minutes to voice their concerns from the public if they're

[50:24] interested in saying anything.

[50:29] » We already did that, didn't we? [laughter]

[50:32] » Again, your procedure. I I I overstepped my boundaries.

[50:35] » No, no, it happened. >> We're statutoily required to go in this

[50:40] » and any comment is better than whenever it happens.

[50:44] » Doesn't matter.

[50:48] We'll wait a few minutes just in case. >> Scott, you got anything to say on the

[50:53] budget? [clears throat] >> No, I I think I think uh it's just

[50:58] really complicated the way the process you can just see all hear all the word

[51:02] the verbiage. And what's really interesting is um I don't know how many

[51:07] firms are down to but like see it's kind of like attorneys. There's a shortage of

[51:11] attorneys in the government world and there's a shortage of CPAs in the

[51:15] government world. And none, as far as I know, still today, none of the

[51:21] universities or colleges in Kansas teach government. And so what used to happen

[51:27] was a CPA firm would do taxes and then do government the rest of the year to

[51:33] kind of like a trucker like backhaul. And uh so what happened after COVID is

[51:39] people couldn't find anybody to work so they just basically took tax season

[51:42] because that's where you make a lot of your money really. And uh so nobody want

[51:47] to do government. Well the problem is if you don't have those all those firms

[51:51] across Kansas doing student doing government. There's nobody to feed into

[51:54] these different government positions and they're not teaching in college. So,

[51:58] we're we're really in a vacuum right now of trying to find people that have that

[52:03] knowledge, you know, of of government and um because it's not easy. I mean,

[52:09] like for example, someone asked, I'm I'm speaking next

[52:13] Thursday, it's called the Kansas Power Pool. Uh they have bunch of cities. I

[52:19] don't know Pratt. I think Pratt might be in that too.

[52:21] » But anyway, it's it Pratt city. But anyway, it they wanted me to come and

[52:26] talk about, you know, just just what we're talking about here, revenue

[52:28] neutral rate. Uh revenue neutral rate. Think about this. So, if you at home had

[52:33] a lockdown of your income for six years. Uh and in that same six-year period,

[52:41] it's a roughly a 30 to 32% increase in inflation. So, what happens at the

[52:46] county level is when when that's locked down, it happens in counties more than

[52:51] cities. cities have like Pratt here has electric and other utilities,

[52:56] » other ways to make money. >> Other ways to make money. Okay. And

[52:59] that's why some of these like Barber, I'm I'm helping Barber, but that's why

[53:02] they signed the Google, you know, data a lot of them because that's the way

[53:06] another way to to make, you know, and make money. But what's really

[53:10] interesting is when you it's like at home lock down revenue, uh, 32% where

[53:16] you going to get your resources to do all these expenses we've been talking

[53:19] about. And so what what ends up happening is unencumbered cash, which is

[53:23] the amount of cash sitting there to pay these bills, uh depletes. I had one

[53:28] county uh they had to cut I don't remember what they cut, but um they were

[53:34] down at the end of 25, they were down to $6,925

[53:38] in the general fund up in Brown County. And that's a that's a $229 million

[53:44] county. You're about a $190 million county based on assessed value. So I

[53:49] asked him I'll show up at this but I grew up in Shitakqua County which is the

[53:53] poorest county in the state of Kent. Okay. And we we own Pearl Bank. There's

[53:57] we always did well. I mean my family my dad was a banker there for 56 years but

[54:01] not one black top road in Shitaka County except for the state highway. And so

[54:07] Brown County I was telling them there was several citizens there. I go well

[54:11] this is what it comes down to. You're you're not getting a black you're not

[54:14] getting chip and seal this year of 90 miles.

[54:17] And there they have 280 miles of laptop the county takes care

[54:24] of. I said I said well I'd like to have just

[54:28] even 10 miles of that in Chiakaco County and and that's really there's it's so

[54:33] hard Comanche County right out here. Uh I don't know how much they have black

[54:38] top chip and seal but they have a mill levy of 162

[54:46] because see that's what people don't understand. Cess value here is 190. Uh

[54:52] Brown County is 229. Sumar county is 348 348 million. Theirs is 26,500,000.

[55:03] So see the difference between one mill 26,500

[55:06] and Sar County's got 348,000 for every meal they have and that's why industry

[55:12] and you know other other means of you know having having the tax base that's

[55:17] why the tax base is talked about but it's just it's just hard you know to

[55:22] balance all that I and then next Thursday they asked me to speak on the

[55:26] future of the political system next spring I go I can't I don't have a

[55:30] crystal ball you I mean, and what they were wanting is, so let's just say, I'm

[55:36] just going to play this out. Let's just say Tai Masterson gets elected. He's a

[55:40] Republican, and the House and Senate are Republican, and they're the ones driving

[55:46] this these these laws they were talking about, what one of them was a cap of 3%,

[55:51] I think it was 3% on assessed value. >> Okay. Well, that's how a lot of times

[55:56] these governments fund is whatever that assessed value goes up, they leave the

[56:00] meal levy the same. I' I've done that for 40 years, you know. Yeah. And you

[56:04] leave the mill the same. So, yes, the people that have the increase in

[56:08] assessed value uh do have a tax increase, but you're trying to trying to

[56:12] keep it at least steady or up just a little bit. So, I don't know if they

[56:17] vote if they run those same laws through and you have a governor that's on their

[56:21] side, what's that going to do? And that's what they were trying want me to

[56:25] speak to next Thursday. I have no idea. You know, like good practice if you want

[56:29] to do that one and then go up to the legislature and do

[56:34] [laughter] >> Tyson will go with you.

[56:35] » Yeah. Tyson go. >> We'll support you.

[56:39] » Yeah. We'll get we'll get uh the counties association on board if you

[56:43] really Well, they've already I've already [laughter]

[56:47] here's the other thing. >> I bet we can find someone you for you to

[56:49] stay with, too. I bet

[56:54] » what what what is really interesting is it's what he's saying is the Kansas

[56:59] Association of Counties and there's two main ones in the government side. The

[57:03] can Association of Counties for Counties level and then the League of Kansas

[57:07] Municipalities. Okay, those are two very powerful

[57:11] » lobbying >> lobbying groups. Okay.

[57:15] One of the challenges with this 18 mandates they're talking about here that

[57:19] you're you know the states sending them down but there's no money with them is

[57:24] uh of the KAC I think 44 counties turned in their information

[57:29] to study that 18 mandates. Okay. And so 105 counties so not even half turned

[57:37] them in and not all of them are members. Okay. So you have to understand that.

[57:42] But what's the challenge is if you looked at Pratt County's budget and you

[57:46] saw how they funded employee benefits, uh the ones he just named off, all those

[57:51] he named off. Okay. Yeah. And then you go to another county and they're

[57:55] probably going to fund it in a different way.

[57:58] » So when you're trying what the KC wants me to do, and I don't I don't think that

[58:02] I don't know if this is possible. school districts you're talking about back

[58:06] there in school districts the every line item in a school district budget and in

[58:11] the audit report is basically the same for all school districts in the state of

[58:15] Kansas because of the department of education. So you can do a comparison

[58:21] between school districts because each fund and each line item is pretty much

[58:26] the same. So you can do these different like you could do AI. You could go in

[58:30] and now I mean I just did this for the meeting I have tonight at five is take

[58:34] all the documents throw them into AI and tell me what I need to know about that.

[58:39] Okay. And it it kicked out a really nice four-page summary. So I'm going to get a

[58:44] hot meeting tonight at 5. Okay. And but in the in the schools you could do that.

[58:51] But if you did that on every one of the of the counties, all 105 counties

[58:56] probably report things just a little different. So KAC says, would you write

[59:02] a white paper? Okay, that would go in and tell like SE sesses or these, you

[59:09] know, all the different people that report how to record every transaction

[59:14] they deal with. Now, think about that. I'm I'm just turned 65. I got my

[59:20] Medicare. Okay. I don't know. I don't I don't know if I could get that done by

[59:25] 85, you know, but that's what that's the battle you face. And cities are exactly

[59:30] the same way. If a city has electric, they are usually set. Okay. I just I'm

[59:37] just Pratt city's probably watching. They probably don't like hear this, but

[59:40] Pratt City, when you have electric, it's a cash cow. Now, I don't know if you

[59:44] you're not into Pratt City, but what was it five four years ago? They were about

[59:48] out of money in their electric because they hadn't raised the rate since 2012

[59:52] and they raised it and the consultant said raise it 40%. In one year, okay,

[59:57] and they raised it 21% I believe is what it was. Okay? And I learned a lot that I

[1:00:04] helped them two years because they didn't have a finance director. And what

[1:00:07] I didn't understand is like in a city for example, if your water rate because

[1:00:11] they have a water problem, okay, a major water problem, okay? If your rate is

[1:00:17] below 50 percentile of all rates in the state of Kansas, you will not get a

[1:00:22] grant. Okay? And if you're going to do a $60 million uh nitrate plant, you're not

[1:00:29] going to you're not going to get you're not going to do it on your own. You

[1:00:31] know, you're going to have to have grant or money on site. And so what's

[1:00:34] interesting about that is theirs was at below 25% of this percentile. So they

[1:00:41] raised that one 48% you know and they're not that happens in almost every city I

[1:00:47] work with the rates because you have this balance counties don't have that

[1:00:52] all they have basically is avalor tax you know but these cities they have this

[1:00:58] how how much do I charge utilities how much do I charge taxes and then uh there

[1:01:03] just there just a so many moving pieces try to explain that to a citizen

[1:01:09] [laughter] >> exactly There there's a lot there.

[1:01:11] » There is there's just so much there. >> So what

[1:01:14] leverage slashinccome besides a tax base payers?

[1:01:19] » Yeah. >> Does the county have?

[1:01:22] » Well, you want me to give an example? I can give a couple examples. So here they

[1:01:26] would have, you know, like wind power and some of that that helps fund some of

[1:01:30] that. >> So the the county has contribution

[1:01:33] agreements where each of those projects makes a yearly payment to the county.

[1:01:38] Mhm. >> Roughly that number with the two wind,

[1:01:41] the solar, >> the battery

[1:01:44] » battery when it comes on will be just under $2 million

[1:01:48] » total. >> But that's [clears throat] a locked in

[1:01:50] contract over five years, 10 years. Is it a year to year?

[1:01:53] » Most projects 10 most of them only have so wind farm life of project they those

[1:01:59] wind farms have the lifetime exemp exemption that I mentioned earlier. The

[1:02:04] other projects that don't have the lifetime are 10-year agreements

[1:02:09] um because their exemption only runs for 10 years. So basically during the

[1:02:13] exemption period they've agreed to contribute a certain amount of money

[1:02:16] annually. Yeah. >> And right now a lot of that is which

[1:02:21] we'll pay it off next year is for the building of it.

[1:02:26] We kind of use that money for >> it's to fund capital

[1:02:32] is our capital improvement plan kind of like

[1:02:34] » Yeah. So the taxpayers aren't necessarily paying for the calf bump

[1:02:38] rooms. Those contribution payments are funding that right now.

[1:02:44] » And each county is different. So go back to Sumar. Uh they have a jail. I I I've

[1:02:51] never worked with them where it's the first time. They have 185 bed jail.

[1:02:55] Okay. And I don't know when they built it, but they have about 83 prisoners

[1:03:00] right now. Kind of run 80 around that is generating 200,000

[1:03:06] a month uh for that jail from federal inmates. Okay. Now, you go to each

[1:03:12] county, there'll be some we don't want to run a motel for the, you know, for

[1:03:16] the prisoners. Okay. Or we don't they'll just have a there's just so many

[1:03:20] different viewpoints on that. and they wanting to they wanting to put 20 more

[1:03:25] in and that'd be another million dollars a year, you know. But then you got to

[1:03:30] have staffing, [clears throat] you know. >> Got to have the building.

[1:03:32] » Got to have the building. >> Have the building and then you have to

[1:03:37] do it. >> Yeah.

[1:03:38] » To the feds. >> Yep. Yep.

[1:03:42] » Now the sheriff can run the jail. But if you start taking in federal

[1:03:47] inmates located and then you go over to Mane County,

[1:03:53] they don't even have a jail. Okay. And their their sheriff and 911 is probably

[1:03:58] about the size of this room. That's their building. I mean, it just it's

[1:04:04] really kind of crazy. Yeah. >> Yeah.

[1:04:07] » You know, you was talking about the mil. >> Yeah. I've been

[1:04:13] fire chief down here southwest part of the county coat area almost 40 years and

[1:04:20] I was on the township board and you know we're we're like at 1.3 mills

[1:04:27] that gets us like $13,000 because there's not much there to tax.

[1:04:33] » Yeah. >> But that 1.3 mills up in the Preston

[1:04:36] area brings in $30,000. >> Yeah.

[1:04:40] Well, I think more than that. >> Well, probably now

[1:04:43] » because I was on the board up there for a while and we were under a mill and it

[1:04:46] was close to 80,000. >> Yeah.

[1:04:51] » You see the difference of the mills there?

[1:04:53] » That's within the county. >> You know, we don't have much oil or gas

[1:04:56] or anything down there. Homes aren't really great and there not many of them.

[1:05:01] » Yeah. >> There's really just nothing to tax.

[1:05:04] » That's right. >> So,

[1:05:10] And one thing that I'll have to say um Amy's the county treasurer and we we

[1:05:15] kind of tackled this last year, >> but another big thing is uh in the

[1:05:20] counties and I just went out to Graham County uh last week to talk to three

[1:05:25] bankers on this but uh here I don't know it is about 1.64 interest rate on all

[1:05:31] the county money about it been a year ago August I think is when we were

[1:05:35] talking. >> He's talking about idle funds.

[1:05:36] » So idle funds. when you have money sitting there, you know, between the

[1:05:39] each of the funds and they have a state law that says basically they're supposed

[1:05:43] to pay the 90-day T bill rate on idle funds. That's money that's not in your

[1:05:48] operations. It's sitting there for future capital improvements, whatever.

[1:05:52] So Morgan and session I think >> I am Amy did. Amy did. Yeah, Amy came

[1:06:00] down. I guess she's weren't in that. Sometimes the clerk is, sometimes

[1:06:03] they're not. So we sat down with the two bankers here.

[1:06:07] And uh I think the rate was they just walked in and they said, "Yeah, we'll

[1:06:12] pay the 90-day TBO rate." That was 4.25, but see, they're not going to come over

[1:06:16] and tell you that unless you ask. >> Okay. So, we asked. I think this year

[1:06:21] it'll probably be about $500,000 off of the idle fund money over the year

[1:06:28] that they'll get out of that out of that from it was like maybe 160,000. So, you

[1:06:34] know, I mean, that's that's quite a bit of money. That's like two mills

[1:06:37] probably, >> more than.

[1:06:39] » So, so, and this happens in every there just so many little things that people

[1:06:43] need to know. Hill City saw me uh uh Graham, he called me up and said, "Would

[1:06:48] you come talk to me?" This I'd never seen one like this. They had nine and a

[1:06:52] half million average balance and just in like their kind of their checking

[1:06:56] account in this one bank. $984 is all they paid on interest last year.

[1:07:02] Okay. >> [laughter]

[1:07:04] » So when the guy comes over, I had this worksheet for 25 and 26 just showing how

[1:07:08] much interest it should have been based on that. It's average of probably around

[1:07:13] 3.75 to 4% is kind of what the 90-day TBO rate is. They should have paid if

[1:07:19] they paid on the full amount about 400,000. You guys saw that banker try to

[1:07:23] explain that one. $984 and it should have been closer to $400,000

[1:07:28] » because you know they were making the money.

[1:07:29] » Yeah. Yeah. >> Exactly. So, there's just there's a lot

[1:07:32] of things like that that you just got to kind of keep on top of it and uh but

[1:07:37] it's there's so many rules. I mean, there's just so many rules.

[1:07:41] » I'll shut up. I I get what I

[1:07:46] Eddie, >> do you have a question? Maybe

[1:07:50] » I'm sorry. Well, uh I'm sorry to be late, but another obligation. My my

[1:07:57] question was what what are you doing in investigation

[1:08:04] in uh information and public

[1:08:10] comment on the data center? What where are we as far as Pratt County

[1:08:18] goes as far as talks? Um,

[1:08:23] » we have not been contacted by anybody. >> I want to be really clear about this

[1:08:28] because you're not the only person that's asked this question and I don't

[1:08:31] know who's out in the public suggesting otherwise. The county is not talking to

[1:08:36] any company about a data center. >> None.

[1:08:41] Not in the background, not nothing. >> Yes. To the extent that there is

[1:08:47] anybody that does approach the county, the county will work with outside

[1:08:52] counsel on a county is already working with outside council on a comprehensive

[1:08:56] plan which goes through our zoning. If a data center

[1:09:02] even considers here, we'll have data center specific regulations through

[1:09:06] zoning that address what they can and cannot do.

[1:09:10] » And all of those are really big ifs. They don't just build data centers

[1:09:14] willy-nilly. To the extent that to the extent that

[1:09:18] they're we're contacted, the public will be made aware that we've been contacted

[1:09:23] » and there'll be public hearings through zoning

[1:09:25] » multiple not just I mean there'll be hearings in at the zoning level.

[1:09:29] There'll be hearings at the commission level. All of it will be done in public.

[1:09:34] Well, I was at a at a meeting and people were saying things and I

[1:09:42] » I just couldn't think that this would be an under the table thing

[1:09:49] that you would not not really inform the public because

[1:09:56] that gets you in trouble down the line and and you've experienced that. not

[1:10:03] this council, not this commission, but the commission before

[1:10:08] » and I thought I I really had very little knowledge except rumor.

[1:10:15] » And that that is exactly what it is. >> So I just thought I couldn't come at

[1:10:19] night. >> Yeah. I thought I would come and say

[1:10:25] uh if you do uh

[1:10:29] need to or find the the need to start talking about it. Will you do it? I I

[1:10:39] mean don't just say, "Well, every meeting's public. Anybody can come but

[1:10:45] say we're going to talk about this and it won't be anformational meeting.

[1:10:52] » There will be multiple meetings at different places, zoning meetings, board

[1:10:57] meetings, it will I mean it's hard for me to predict what a future meeting will

[1:11:01] look like, but to the extent there's a data center, there'll be multiple

[1:11:04] meetings on it. The public will be aware of it. The public will be allowed to

[1:11:08] provide input and comment >> at those meetings. I understand what

[1:11:12] you're saying and and that's kind of what I ran on when I got in here and you

[1:11:17] can ask Tyson. I like everything out. >> Yes.

[1:11:20] » That's why we have our >> I I I don't I don't believe in that. Uh

[1:11:26] there's some things that attorney client that I think ought to be out that he

[1:11:30] doesn't. We have other but for me and I'm not speaking for

[1:11:35] these guys but uh I want everything out. The public needs to know because it's

[1:11:41] their tax dollars. >> Yeah. You know, it's not ours every

[1:11:45] week. >> We want everything out to the public.

[1:11:48] So, and if they have a question, they can back with us and we can we

[1:11:54] » put the rumor to stop. >> Yeah.

[1:11:58] » You're not the only one. >> I think it's kind of too bad and I'm

[1:12:02] probably saying more than what you asked me to say. I think it's too bad we don't

[1:12:08] have an oldtime >> newspaper,

[1:12:12] » public newspaper >> and you can just you could just put out

[1:12:16] an announcement that this is on the agenda.

[1:12:20] » Yeah. And the Tribune, you know, they'll post the city's meetings all the time.

[1:12:27] » They don't even come to ours. >> Yeah. They don't even come to ours

[1:12:30] anymore. And I don't know if it's because we put them on Zoom or where you

[1:12:34] can watch them or >> Yeah.

[1:12:36] » Well, >> what the deal is.

[1:12:38] » And I know you can you can watch this, but I I'm just I don't know. It's my old

[1:12:45] lady mine that says we we need to let >> Well, I know if we are ever contacted,

[1:12:53] there will be public meetings. Rick and I were on the planning board when the

[1:12:57] wind farm started. >> Yeah. There was we had

[1:13:02] numerous public meetings out at the fairgrounds

[1:13:06] » before that was ever decided upon. The first the first one especially. Yeah. We

[1:13:11] met, you know, five or six hours at a time.

[1:13:14] » Yeah. One night we didn't get out of there till after midnight.

[1:13:17] » Yeah. >> So there will be public hearings if

[1:13:20] we're ever contacted, but we have not been

[1:13:24] » none. Zero. I just want to >> none whatsoever. Yeah, I don't know

[1:13:28] who's spreading that. I think the last one I heard they was gonna put one in

[1:13:31] the city of Pratt. >> Well, and I I had another question since

[1:13:36] you gave permission. >> Uh [clears throat]

[1:13:41] if the windfarm money becomes available in another year, is

[1:13:47] that correct? That the the bonds on the safety center will be paid out in 27.

[1:13:55] » Correct. Uh how will that wind farm money

[1:14:01] » be used >> be discussed and allocated?

[1:14:04] » Well, we have a capital improvement plan and some of that will be used for that.

[1:14:11] And you know, I'm just going to use an

[1:14:15] example. I'm going to use EMS. You know, they have the power CS.

[1:14:21] one of those breaks, we'll probably use capital improvement funds to replace it

[1:14:26] instead of coming out of EMS's budget because those things are very expensive.

[1:14:33] » Yeah, she's going to bring you a copy of that plan.

[1:14:36] » I can make a copy of this, but this is our capital improvement. You can pass it

[1:14:39] back when you're done, too. Looking because he was interested. I know both

[1:14:42] of you guys were. He's got everything from 5 years, 10 years, 20 years out.

[1:14:47] » And and we go over it yearly and update it. And you know, like this courthouse,

[1:14:54] you can see all the mold in the ceilings. Our courthouse is falling

[1:14:58] apart. And it just we got to get it fixed. The roof's bad.

[1:15:06] You know, we need a new sand pit. We're about out of sand. We got to find a new

[1:15:10] sand pit. You know, these are things that

[1:15:14] » but when that's discussed, I I would think that would

[1:15:20] would require some public notification also.

[1:15:25] » Yeah. I mean, we'll discuss it in open session

[1:15:30] » because I have I'm a retired teacher and I have teacher friends all over the

[1:15:37] state who have had bits and pieces of wind farm money

[1:15:44] in the schools. And right now it seems like the hospital

[1:15:49] needs it, but maybe by then they'll have things. Uh I I just you know I think

[1:15:55] that's that's one of those things that

[1:16:01] again needs to be be publicized more than just on your agenda and that's my

[1:16:09] responsibility. I realize pay attention to that.

[1:16:15] uh when they're going to do something that important,

[1:16:20] maybe some extra >> extra notification,

[1:16:24] » just, you know, we're going to we're going to

[1:16:28] do this and then if we don't go, then it really

[1:16:33] is. >> So, um just so the public is aware, the

[1:16:38] county has a capital improvement plan and a special equipment plan. And if you

[1:16:42] do look over those plans, those are not guarantees that we're going to do any of

[1:16:48] that. The way it works is the department heads come in, they request something be

[1:16:52] put in a plan, the commission approves whether they'll put it in the plan. And

[1:16:58] again, it's not a contractual commitment to anybody that is going to do it. It

[1:17:02] kind of works as a wish list. And it also works off there's sometimes some

[1:17:07] like it's set up in immediate five 10 year increments, I think. something we

[1:17:13] that was set up for five years might become an immediate need and it will

[1:17:17] jump up and any spending that's done out of either the uh capital improvement or

[1:17:22] special equipment gets approved again prior to any spending occurring.

[1:17:28] » Yeah, it's got to be it's got to be allocated and open meeting.

[1:17:33] » Yeah. Well, it just I I think we need to be

[1:17:39] we as the public need to be more responsible,

[1:17:44] but I've just heard so many things about the status center. I decided that

[1:17:50] » appreciate you coming in on that. >> You're not the only one. I don't know

[1:17:53] who's spreading rumors, but yeah, I mean, I get stopped all the time about

[1:17:57] it, >> but if you come and you say no, we have

[1:18:02] done nothing. Yeah, >> I'll believe you.

[1:18:06] » And >> because normally they come and see us

[1:18:08] during a meeting, [clears throat] >> but

[1:18:11] » so because some some people want it and some people don't. And I have I don't

[1:18:17] have enough information to make a determination.

[1:18:21] » Well, and that's a problem, too, because you can find anything you want on the

[1:18:25] internet for it or against it. Whether it's true or not, who knows?

[1:18:31] And I don't really know any of you, but I'm Karen Pinkle

[1:18:37] » and I just I'm just >> Yeah, we appreciate you coming in.

[1:18:43] » Yes. >> But yeah, anything

[1:18:48] major, we try to get the word out that we'll try to do better, I guess.

[1:18:53] » Yeah. on the on the zoning stuff. It's not only try, it's statuto required that

[1:18:59] we have public meetings and that's what would happen. And just and this isn't at

[1:19:06] you just to the public in general. Uh

[1:19:12] I don't really know how to say what I want to say, but I can say that rumors

[1:19:16] aren't helpful to the community. They're not helpful to

[1:19:21] my board. We spend a good deal of time and they spend taxpayer money paying me

[1:19:31] to deal with those rumors. >> We have quarter requests that are based

[1:19:36] off rumors. That takes time. That takes effort. And that's time and effort that

[1:19:42] can be spent doing things that are productive, not not responding to

[1:19:46] rumors. >> Well, and I understand that. and

[1:19:52] technology has, you know, made it really easy to spread through numbers.

[1:19:58] » Yeah. >> And uh so just I was just interested and

[1:20:07] » anytime you got questions or hear something, come see us.

[1:20:10] » Yes, we're here every Monday at two. >> Well, your line items in your budget. A

[1:20:14] lot of these just placeholders. We think we want to spend money here. We think

[1:20:18] we're that rolls up to our budget. Yeah. that you can substitute should another

[1:20:22] emergency arise. >> Yeah, absolutely.

[1:20:24] » Yeah. So, let's say >> there's no guarantee on any one of

[1:20:27] those. >> Fair enough. Fair enough. Yeah. It's not

[1:20:30] a guarantee [laughter] because we've had Well, let's say the air conditioner goes

[1:20:36] out here. >> Yes.

[1:20:37] » You know, we got to replace it. So, we move that up.

[1:20:44] Well, and I have to say thank you for your service because I know how much

[1:20:49] time this takes. And then to have

[1:20:55] rumors take more time, it's it's too bad.

[1:21:01] But I'm >> I'm interested to be here and kind of

[1:21:08] see who you are >> and I see your names and uh kind of know

[1:21:14] about you, but I don't know. So, >> I'll brag on them a little bit. That

[1:21:20] that notebook right there, I don't know of another county their size or even

[1:21:26] larger that has the detail they have in that notebook. Most

[1:21:30] » that's Sasha. Don't look at that. Sasha is the one

[1:21:33] that paid that book. Yes, >> it's all Sasha and her office.

[1:21:37] » That's Tyson's suggestion. >> We we talk about it a lot because it's

[1:21:41] very important. It's like at home a five to sevenyear plan, you know, where

[1:21:45] you're at. And because those big costs are what's going to make that meal levy,

[1:21:49] you know, go up or whatever if you don't have it planned out. and having a plan

[1:21:53] like that flowing the receipt side up here and the expenditure side down here

[1:21:59] and it's just like at home and just flowing making sure you're never in the

[1:22:02] hole, you know, because uh people don't understand that government you can't go

[1:22:07] like to a line of credit at a bank, you know, like if I wanted to go get money

[1:22:11] for my firm and I needed some extra money, I would go get a line of credit

[1:22:15] at the bank, help me through a slow period and then pay that back.

[1:22:19] Governments can't do that. They can't go get a line of credit. That's why we have

[1:22:22] to have the unencumbered cash balances to sustain uh what's going on. If the

[1:22:28] air conditioner goes out, I think over summer it was 450,000 in the jail. I

[1:22:32] don't know what they are here. >> Sorry about that much.

[1:22:35] » But 450,000 is not something you just you just write a check for, you know,

[1:22:40] without making sure you've planned appropriately. And they've done a

[1:22:43] they've really done a good job. They've all done a good job of make Tyson's

[1:22:47] written uh the other thing that's neat about this is there's I think they're

[1:22:51] called resolutions for both the equipment and the capital proment to say

[1:22:56] how that once it gets in there how's it spent and how do how do they walk that

[1:23:01] through. So it's not like you're just throwing a bunch of money in there and

[1:23:03] it's a wish list. There's steps to go through to make sure those are

[1:23:07] appropriately spent. So >> year over year do you increase that

[1:23:10] basis upon what you perceive with inflation meaning 3 to 5% year-over-year

[1:23:16] the last couple years? >> Well we have our department head kind of

[1:23:20] review it and then we mark off what we've done

[1:23:24] » looking at your capital. >> Yeah and even the special equipment. Uh

[1:23:29] yeah, you know, something's, you know, let's say somebody's going to remodel,

[1:23:32] let's say, the jail, >> you know, when that's a $3 million

[1:23:37] project or whatever and it's been on the list three or four years. We probably

[1:23:40] ought to raise that up a little bit, you know,

[1:23:44] just from a place you like to say. >> That's why we kind of go over it.

[1:23:50] » Yeah. >> Once a year and

[1:23:53] » and who are you? >> Oh, I'm sorry. I'm Scott. I'm Scott

[1:23:56] Lloyd. Oh, you weren't here when I stopped. I think I got a card.

[1:24:00] » No, you just don't have a name plate.

[1:24:06] » I just showed up because I love budget meetings.

[1:24:09] » You're a great paid individual. >> He's a CPA that helps you with the

[1:24:14] budget. Well, and I have another thing that you're discussing.

[1:24:19] » Um I I hear constantly about property tax, property tax, property tax.

[1:24:27] » And then I see we have two school districts and a college and then we

[1:24:34] compare ourselves to other counties and it seems like that is not comparing

[1:24:42] correctly. I mean, if we have three entities, well, in a hospital, we have

[1:24:49] four. Uh,

[1:24:53] [snorts] what what one of those do do people want to drop off? I mean, which

[1:25:01] which one of those four is not important?

[1:25:06] And why would we not have higher property tax

[1:25:12] because of that? Now, what's wrong with my thinking?

[1:25:19] » You know, the the two school thing, we're not the only county that has two

[1:25:23] high schools or two two schools in the district. Uh Stafford County got St.

[1:25:30] John, they've got Stafford. So, they got three.

[1:25:33] » Yeah. in their deal. And if you look at our

[1:25:38] at our taxing map, you know, I'm going to use Skyline as an

[1:25:44] example, but they actually go into Barber County, and those people down

[1:25:48] there are taxed, too. >> Yeah. Well, I knew they sent buses down

[1:25:53] there. And uh >> the further west you get, the more

[1:25:58] school districts you're in. You know, like one school district, I got one I

[1:26:01] audited out Winona. It's one of the smallest in the state.

[1:26:05] » They've got [clears throat] five school districts in that one school. I mean,

[1:26:08] five counties in that one school district because they have such a big

[1:26:12] area. So, it kind of depends, you know, further west you go. And it's the same

[1:26:16] with hospitals. hospitals when you go from about Pratt to the Colorado line

[1:26:21] almost every county has some kind of relationship with a hospital and that

[1:26:26] just comp I mean that that's a lot there's a lot of additional funding I

[1:26:31] mean that >> so you can compare yourself with other

[1:26:35] counties >> you can because I thought maybe this was

[1:26:38] unique >> no

[1:26:40] » we haven't lived here >> now we have a cho that's unique

[1:26:44] » that's unique yeah >> the college but uh

[1:26:49] you know, and and even the hospital, yes, you are paying a sales tax for the

[1:26:55] bonds, but as far as any taxes going towards the hospital,

[1:27:03] the only taxpayer money they get is what we give our hospital board who oversees

[1:27:09] the maintenance of the building. That's correct.

[1:27:12] » Which is about 80,000 a year. >> No, it's pretty heavy. I think it's 300

[1:27:18] » 350 >> 380 I think 350

[1:27:22] » it's a pretty good >> but again that's the physical the

[1:27:27] county's assets >> yeah we own the building so

[1:27:31] » our hospital board >> there's another one that's pretty

[1:27:34] confusing when you talk about boards you got the board that represents the entity

[1:27:39] of the doctors in the facilities and medical field and you got a board

[1:27:43] represents the county which >> manages the building in a

[1:27:47] » Yeah, there's also one more board. >> Yeah, [laughter] I'm going to bring that

[1:27:53] up. You want to let go? >> I mean, it's helpful. I mean, just in

[1:27:57] case any members of the public are watching, there's also a foundation

[1:28:00] board and that that foundation is the sole shareholder of VRMC.

[1:28:08] So, even more complicated, but there, you know, there's a lot of you're right,

[1:28:12] it's complicated. There's a lot of moving parts to it.

[1:28:15] » Let's see. This is just I've I've become more educated about that in the last few

[1:28:22] months because of the problems. Maybe we should have

[1:28:27] » No, I don't. >> Well, it's funny you bring up community

[1:28:32] that >> you bring up community college. So, the

[1:28:36] way it used to happen when I first started,

[1:28:40] » uh it wasn't funded like locally like it is now. you know, they just raised the

[1:28:43] taxes and it's, you know, here. So, if you were a student from Shitakqua County

[1:28:48] and you came to Pratt County, okay, then you actually your okay, Pra County would

[1:28:56] send a notice. I don't know if it went through the I can't remember if it went

[1:28:59] through the clerk or straight to the county clerk at Shiitaka County and that

[1:29:04] county had to pay for that student because they went to Pratt County. You

[1:29:08] see what I'm saying? I mean, it was very that was very complicated back then

[1:29:12] because you had all these students going everywhere and then they ch I don't know

[1:29:15] what year they changed that. They changed that here

[1:29:17] » uh probably about 20 years ago. >> Uh because they didn't think it was fair

[1:29:21] that Pra County had to uh I'm not just using PR county. They didn't think it's

[1:29:26] fair that P County had to come up with all the resources that that if that

[1:29:29] student came from another county, that county should help fund it. That's the

[1:29:33] way it used to be. But they changed that. [clears throat]

[1:29:38] Well, thank you. >> Thank you for coming.

[1:29:44] » Anytime. >> And if you get a copy of that, if you

[1:29:48] get a copy of that capital improvement book, it's great way to u uh fall asleep

[1:29:52] at night. Okay. [laughter]

[1:29:57] » On the budget. Yeah. I mean, it's riveted. God's riv.

[1:30:03] » So, did you look at that book? Do we need to go upstairs and talk to you and

[1:30:06] come back down? >> Yeah. Yeah. or I get you a copy whatever

[1:30:08] whatever it is. >> Yeah.

[1:30:16] » I just ask questions and another can of worms opens about another board.

[1:30:21] So I need to be careful

[1:30:25] like my job. [laughter] thing.

[1:30:32] » Anybody else have any questions for the on the hearing of the budget?

[1:30:39] » Do you guys have any >> any of us?

[1:30:47] Do I hear a motion to adopt our 2027 budget?

[1:30:52] » I'll make that motion. >> Second it. It's been moved and seconded

[1:30:56] to adopt our 2027 budget. All in favor say I. I. Oppose. Same sign. Motion

[1:31:03] carries.

[1:31:30] after that or you want me to wait until I saw

[1:31:34] » Oh, yeah. Just wait till it's done. That's great. Y

[1:31:40] » you've already sent that one.

[1:31:44] » That so it's all t. >> So then when it's done, just send a

[1:31:48] stop. >> Okay. Y

[1:31:49] » I can do it.

[1:31:59] I think it was about two years ago, maybe three, two, I think at least, we

[1:32:03] would we started doing a department head training. So like when we would come

[1:32:06] down usually in March or April and we'd have all the department heads in here

[1:32:11] because you know the flow of this information is very important that all

[1:32:15] levels understand it. You the citizens also but it's very important the

[1:32:20] department heads understand the nuances of RNR revenue neutral rate how it

[1:32:25] works. You can't just ask for a wish list. you know, these are things that

[1:32:29] are needed and then that that's how that capital improvement, you know, we've

[1:32:32] been working on that now for a while. But that's a great it's usually about

[1:32:36] two and a half hours that we work with the just talking and they can ask

[1:32:40] questions and the more the department heads understand the budget, the better

[1:32:44] it is for these people sitting here because it's just it's a chain kind of

[1:32:48] like a chain reaction, you know. And it used to be when I did budgets, oh my

[1:32:53] goodness, they would come in and and I'd set not here at when I I used to do

[1:32:57] Marian for a long time and they would come in and I would put the numbers in

[1:33:02] and it'd be 10 mills over last year's budget because they'd have wish list,

[1:33:07] you know, until [clears throat] you train them to understand that. I mean,

[1:33:12] it's good to want and we want better for their department, but you can't just

[1:33:17] throw, you know, oh, I want 200,000 here or 200,000 here because that just

[1:33:21] doesn't work. So, we we try to explain that, you know, the best we can. I think

[1:33:25] that's helped not just to >> this is a good place to give more color,

[1:33:29] too, and probably a good way to end, but >> why don't you just walk through your

[1:33:34] process with us each year and that way the public's aware of what's happening.

[1:33:38] So I had mentioned we have bud budget study sessions earlier.

[1:33:41] » Yeah. >> Give color on the whole timeline how

[1:33:44] this works. So, uh, and I I may miss if I miss something, you jump in here, but

[1:33:49] we we usually start around February or March getting getting these counties

[1:33:54] that we work with like Pratt uh, in order and then we set up a calendar, do

[1:33:59] session >> and um, so like and and here here would

[1:34:04] be like the budget calendar, okay, that we would set up, but but we would do

[1:34:08] like this year we did u department head training on April 7th, okay? So April

[1:34:14] 7th, we come and we spend about three hours. It's usually a morning and we go

[1:34:18] through the budget, last year's budget, go through the information, tell them

[1:34:22] how to present their information to the commission, okay? And and go through

[1:34:27] that whole process. Then they go back and work on their budget. Okay? So, and

[1:34:31] if they have questions, they got my card. I mean, they I I get calls and

[1:34:35] they'll ask, "How should I do this or how should I do that?" Then on April

[1:34:40] 5th, which is about I mean I'm sorry, May 5th, about a month later, they would

[1:34:44] actually come in and make their presentation to the county commission

[1:34:49] based on how they've put their budget together and questions are asked. And

[1:34:53] that's a good if you want to come to a good one to understand how all the

[1:34:57] departments uh work in the county. Not all of them may like somebody might be

[1:35:02] on vacation or somebody might be gone. They'll come in our time, but most of

[1:35:06] the department heads on on May 5th would come in. It goes from it goes from 9:00

[1:35:11] a.m. to 5:00 p.m. It usually gets done about probably 2 or 3, but it's it's a

[1:35:16] long day >> and everybody comes in day, you know,

[1:35:19] some of the questions that you were asking. It's a great day. Yeah. And if

[1:35:23] you wanted to go back and watch all that's online,

[1:35:26] » all that's online it's a good day. It's a good learning day for every

[1:35:30] » and I love it because uh even though I've worked on Pratt for now I think

[1:35:35] about my fifth year uh every year is a little different and I always learn

[1:35:40] something you know and I learn something what they're maybe doing it also helps

[1:35:44] me with other counties so you can kind of say well that works over here you

[1:35:47] know so that's that's a that's a big day then I take all those or Lauren I she's

[1:35:53] a lady that helps me in my firm um she takes all those all those uh

[1:35:59] presentations and we put together a budget, okay, to the best of our ability

[1:36:04] with everything we know. And then we come back. The first time we come back

[1:36:08] this year was June 16th. So about another month we'll come back and that's

[1:36:12] another great day to be that very first time that we present uh all those

[1:36:17] department heads put in the actual budget because on June 15th, this is

[1:36:22] June 16th. On June 15th, we get the estimated assessed value from the

[1:36:28] appraiser and that includes state assess which came in I think on June 1st and

[1:36:33] then all the other assessments uh are put together and that's the estimated

[1:36:38] assessed value. So this budget we just approved is still on estimated assessed

[1:36:44] value. We they'll have it all signed and then

[1:36:48] by October 1st they will actually have the final value. clerk will go back

[1:36:53] through it again, make sure everything's ready to be able to send to the county

[1:36:57] treasur for your tax statement. Okay. Then after that rough draft, I don't

[1:37:02] remember how many meetings we had this year. Probably two more.

[1:37:06] » We had some Zoom meetings. Yeah. Or phone calls. You know,

[1:37:12] sometimes there'll be a phone call. But um so I come back and then we'll talk

[1:37:16] about and then what we've done then is we'll come down. I'll just give you an

[1:37:19] example that happens in all counties. We try to get all the budget done to the

[1:37:23] best of our ability and at that point we maybe haven't addressed a cola or a

[1:37:29] raise for employees or we don't know maybe what the health insurance raise is

[1:37:34] going to be. Okay. So we'll know some of that and we'll come back for another

[1:37:39] meeting and just talk about these bigger things that we need to figure out now

[1:37:43] that we know all the littleer things. Here's some big things. [clears throat]

[1:37:46] How are we going to fund this? So um I'll give you an example.

[1:37:51] not here, but this just happened. Summer County is new this year and they are

[1:37:56] building a 911 center. Okay, now I'm not bragging on myself. I'm just I'm just

[1:38:02] bragging on I'm bragging on how we had to have so many people working on this

[1:38:07] piece to work. They did not have enough money to build the two the right at $2

[1:38:13] million 911 center. Okay. So, uh, by statute, equipment reserve, you remember

[1:38:20] how we talked about equipment reserve? They have about $2 million in there. So,

[1:38:25] you can transfer that money anytime you want back to the general fund. So, we

[1:38:29] transferred $900,000 back to the general fund. In a sense, borrowed it for the

[1:38:34] for the rest of this year, and then the J the sheriff that making the 200,000 a

[1:38:39] month is actually going to help fund it next spring to pay that off. But you

[1:38:43] don't want to get in that situation. You don't want to come down to a situation

[1:38:46] where you have a $2 million building and you can't fund half of it. You see what

[1:38:51] I'm saying? So, there's so many moving pieces, you know, in in that budget. But

[1:38:56] those are the types of things you get the kind of the the department heads

[1:38:59] done. You meet with the commission, you put the budget together, and then you

[1:39:03] start going like you were asking later, why is it this way or why is it that

[1:39:07] way? And then we just work through them. And

[1:39:10] » there are always issues. There's always Yeah. Yeah.

[1:39:13] » It's when I don't sleep for two months. >> How do you mitigate your exposure? Not

[1:39:19] putting together budget, not knowing what you're really dealing with in

[1:39:23] income or receipts in coming in tax base.

[1:39:28] » I mean, you got to have I wouldn't want to be in two months without sleeping.

[1:39:32] » I mean, you could explain it maybe better from a legal standpoint, but you

[1:39:36] know, I had this happen last year. So, this guy stands up up at Brown County

[1:39:41] where I was helping him and he says, "I'm not going to pay my taxes." Okay?

[1:39:45] I'm just not going to pay my taxes. Well, there's things in place that

[1:39:47] that's not going to happen because, you know, you're you're going to go through

[1:39:50] a sheriff sale. I mean, there you're going to get it. So, he looked at me and

[1:39:54] he said, I was explaining the law and I'm not an attorney, I told him, but I'm

[1:39:58] explaining the law. And he says, "Well, why don't you just repossess my house?

[1:40:02] You just take it, Mr. Lloyd." I go, "I don't need a house in Brown County."

[1:40:06] Okay. And uh that's that's sometimes a comment

[1:40:10] you get, you know, it's kind of kind of smiley. And I explained to him and

[1:40:14] people don't understand that. But see, you have what is it three I think you

[1:40:18] publish three times the delinquent tax list. Okay. You've seen it probably in

[1:40:22] the paper. >> Is that right? I think it's three times.

[1:40:26] » And and then you'll you know, so there's a process in place for to mitigate like

[1:40:31] you're saying whether you can get that collection of taxes or not. Okay. You

[1:40:35] should always get it. Now, I've had some counties that have went, this is pretty

[1:40:39] bad. I mean, I had one county probably five years because they didn't have a

[1:40:43] tax sale. So, see what happens is when that property sets there and nobody's

[1:40:48] paying their taxes and it's delinquent, the quicker you can have that tax sale

[1:40:52] to get that piece of property back on the tax roll, the quicker you collect

[1:40:56] that that money. And there may be other parts of that.

[1:40:58] » There so there's a statuto procedure that we have to follow, but I can here's

[1:41:02] what I can say without getting into the weeds. We do a tax foreclosure

[1:41:06] proceeding every year. Yep. >> It takes significant county resources to

[1:41:10] do it, but we're also able to capture back significant amount of money.

[1:41:15] » Yeah. And that would be one of the biggest mitigations probably.

[1:41:18] » The other thing you might want to talk about like estimates on sales tax and

[1:41:22] the amount of money that has come in. That's good.

[1:41:25] » So, if you were looking at the general fund, the general fund is the one that

[1:41:28] wants to be very healthy. Now, this is just a Scott Lloyd rule. Uh my

[1:41:33] grandparents grew up in the depression and they always pressed on me the three

[1:41:37] to six month rule of your cash reserves at home. Okay, three to six months of

[1:41:41] expenditures should be in your savings account. Okay, so about 20 years ago I

[1:41:45] started applying that to governments, cities and counties. And that's why we

[1:41:49] shoot for that because that county up there that I took over, they had $6,925.

[1:41:55] They had not been doing that. They had not been watching their cash reserves.

[1:42:00] And so what is very dangerous is in the general fund you'll see there's there's

[1:42:05] probably a list of receipts about this long. One of those is sales tax. So

[1:42:10] let's just say I'm just going to use that as an example. Let's say in 25

[1:42:14] which would been the first column the 27 budget we collected

[1:42:18] um 2 million or 1 million 1,500,000. That was the sales tax in Pra County

[1:42:24] that they're shared. Okay. We don't want to go in and say okay that's going to go

[1:42:29] up. we'll go 1.7 million in 26 and 1.8 million in 27.

[1:42:36] You don't want to do that. You want to always stay under that. And we try to do

[1:42:39] that with every line item because it's like at home. If you say you're going to

[1:42:44] make 50,000 as a household, but you only bring home 40,000, but you built your

[1:42:50] budget on 50,000, what happens? Probably you're probably going to be out of cash.

[1:42:55] You see what I'm saying? So, it's a lot better to say $1.2 million on a $1.5

[1:43:02] million sales tax. So, what happens is is when that flows through, we're

[1:43:07] probably going to end up with a little more cash on hand than we anticipated,

[1:43:12] but that's a good thing. I always say cash is king. It's just like it is at

[1:43:16] home. Okay. Uh but there's a lot of things like there's

[1:43:19] » And same with EMS receipt. >> EMS receipts.

[1:43:22] » There is a way to attempt to mitigate exposure. It's not,

[1:43:26] » you know, precise science, but >> yeah. So, so hardly ever, I mean, it

[1:43:32] does happen, but hardly ever do we overestimate the receipt side on a

[1:43:38] budget even outside the taxes like he's talking with the MS because you don't

[1:43:42] want you don't want to end up with, you know, uh, spending it on money you're

[1:43:47] not collecting. >> Well, you know, good example was

[1:43:50] already, you know, during co >> Yeah.

[1:43:53] them ambulances were running like crazy. >> Yeah.

[1:43:57] » And we plugged that number back in. It's over. It's over.

[1:44:01] » Yeah. >> Yeah.

[1:44:02] » So, we had to adjust. >> Yeah. Yeah.

[1:44:08] » Well, it's just like anything. There's always more to it when you're involved

[1:44:14] » than when you're looking from outside, why don't they do this? And uh being in

[1:44:21] the school system as long as I was and I didn't I was not here.

[1:44:27] » Yeah. >> And um parents would come and well why

[1:44:33] do you have this rule or why >> why can't I do this and uh there's just

[1:44:40] more to it. >> Yeah. Absolutely.

[1:44:44] » So I I appreciate hearing this. >> Yeah.

[1:44:48] It was a learning curve for me when I went, this was just my second year and I

[1:44:55] went to new commissioner meeting in Topeka

[1:45:00] about two weeks I think after I was sworn in. I didn't realize there were

[1:45:06] how many unfunded mandates the state forced on the c on all counties, not

[1:45:12] just Pratt, but all counties. I did not realize that. that everybody the

[1:45:16] counties had to fund stuff like that with no money from the state but

[1:45:21] demanded >> it had to be done.

[1:45:25] So it was a cult eyeopening experience for me. I enjoy it but it's a learning

[1:45:31] curve. >> How much do you enjoy it?

[1:45:35] » Well, I enjoy this. There's certain parts that I never would

[1:45:43] » but I enjoy it. [laughter]

[1:45:49] » Until you're involved, you don't >> Yeah.

[1:45:55] have appreciated hearing this and I >> I feel very confident that

[1:46:02] » you're telling me the truth and uh you don't have some

[1:46:09] unfunded idea >> we know

[1:46:15] » we will hear about it before you do it. >> Yep.

[1:46:18] » Guaranteed. >> Guaranteed. Yes.

[1:46:21] number one. >> I'll let you finish up. Thank you.

[1:46:25] » Great questions. >> Thank you for coming. Come back anytime.

[1:46:28] Yeah. >> And I think I remember a long time ago

[1:46:31] seeing Tyson play football.

[1:46:36] » Was he any good? >> We used to come to football games.

[1:46:40] » Oh, >> okay.

[1:46:42] » So, we did see you play football. >> And before you leave, I just wanted to

[1:46:48] thank you. I believe we received a card from you about elections. Was that you?

[1:46:52] » Oh, that is incredibly kind. Thank you so much for sending a card. Not very

[1:46:57] many people go out. So, before you left, I just wanted to extend my gratitude.

[1:47:01] Thank you. >> Okay. Well, thank you. I just um I went

[1:47:06] I didn't mind going to the county uh to the 4 center and they even had a

[1:47:12] drive-thru that I don't have my didn't have to take my little clients here.

[1:47:18] » But I just thought it went so smoothly and it just it just had I thought people

[1:47:26] need to be thanked. Yeah. >> Thank you. We we very much appreciate

[1:47:30] it. It really >> Sasha did an excellent job. Y

[1:47:35] » now I'll still go back out there. I don't I'm not going to put my ballot in

[1:47:39] the mail. >> Yep. So we have we have curbside for

[1:47:42] you. >> [laughter]

[1:47:43] » But I I feel confident too that if we if we do what the law says, we should be

[1:47:52] fine. If we just don't have someone doing unfunded mandate

[1:48:01] to us, [laughter] >> I hope that anyway, thank you very much.

[1:48:07] This is good. I I probably will be back because I I find it interesting.

[1:48:15] » I really do. >> Thank you.

[1:48:18] » Thank you. Anybody have anything else?

[1:48:23] » I hear a motion to close a budget hearing.

[1:48:27] » I'll make that motion. >> Second.

[1:48:29] » Been moved and seconded to close the 2027 budget hearing. All in favor say I.

[1:48:35] » I. >> Same sign. Motion carried. We budget

[1:48:40] here is closed. >> I grab you for sure.

Pratt County RNR/Budget Hearing 9/8/2026

Transcript