[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:14] Good morning. I'm going to call to order the Lynn County Board of Supervisors meeting today.
[0:20] We have a public hearing on proposed property tax levy for fiscal year 2025. First up, are
[0:27] we going to? I'd make the motion to open a public hearing on proposed property tax levy
[0:33] rate for fiscal year 2025. Second. All in favor, any further discussion? All in favor say
[0:38] aye. Aye. Aye. First up, we have Sarah Barrows. Good morning, Sarah. Good morning, Sarah
[0:43] Barrow's budget director. I do have proofs of publication for the notice that went out
[0:51] in the Lynn newsletter, Mount Vernon, Lisbon Sun-Times and the Gazette. We also posted it
[0:57] on all of our social media sites and on the Lynn County website. For the public hearing
[1:03] I have had quite a few phone calls regarding more so the budget statement mailing that
[1:09] went out I think then the notice that was published in the paper but have had a
[1:14] lot of feedback from the public on that the various questions I've gotten are
[1:18] you know first of all what what is this this is new what does this mean why our
[1:24] tax is going up for the county what are the other jurisdictions going to do what's
[1:29] my tax bill going to be things along those lines just to reiterate for the
[1:35] public that's here this is new this year it's a component of the House file
[1:40] 718 that was passed that replaces the max levy Senate file 634 that we've done in
[1:46] the past where we do an initial meeting to talk about what the levy rate what
[1:51] the board is proposing to do with the levy rate the mailing that went out is
[1:54] new it was sent out by the Lynn County Auditor's Office but does have
[1:59] information from multiple taxing jurisdictions depending on where the
[2:03] individual lives and the purpose of the mailing was to show what the board or city council
[2:09] or school board was proposing to do with their tax levy.
[2:13] It wasn't necessarily meant to be, you know, like a tax bill or anything like that.
[2:18] Bills come out in August and those have the actual tax amount due.
[2:24] We also have, you know, another meeting in April where we actually finalize the
[2:28] budget so there's still a few more steps in the process before we get to A, a finalized
[2:33] budget and B, a tax bill.
[2:36] This public hearing we have prepared a PowerPoint just to address some of the questions that
[2:42] I did receive.
[2:43] I know you guys have had phone calls as well, some emails, whatever correspondence people
[2:49] have sent in.
[2:49] So hopefully this answers some of those questions and if not I'd be happy to touch on any
[2:56] questions people might have. Do I do a question?
[3:04] So our budget process begins in
[3:06] November. It begins with a meeting with the Board of Supervisors to discuss and
[3:11] set the different budget initiatives for the year and that it actually starts
[3:15] with a public forum as well where the public can come to a 5 p.m. meeting and
[3:20] you know voice any of their questions or concerns regarding the next year's
[3:24] budget. Then in December and January we hold the departmental meetings. Those
[3:29] are held Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays at 1.30 p.m. where the board meets with every
[3:33] department with Don the finance director and myself and we discuss what that department's
[3:38] budget what they're proposing for their budget for the next fiscal year. In February we
[3:45] are typically finalizing the budget where the board gets to the point where they're
[3:48] discussing can we fund any offers do we have to make any reductions and what are we
[3:53] looking to do with the levy rate. Then we're in March here where with again with
[3:59] the new house file 718 we mailed out the budget year statement for FY 25 this
[4:05] compares the FY 24 tax rate with the proposed FY 25 tax rate for the county
[4:11] the school and the city authorities and then we're here now at the public
[4:15] hearing for that for that mailing and then in April we'll have our public
[4:20] hearing on the total budget and adopt and certify the budget no later than April 30th.
[4:26] Again, all of the notices for all of these meetings are posted in our three newspapers
[4:31] on social media and on the website. I will note with the budget mailing there where it says it
[4:37] compares the FY24 tax rate with the new proposed tax rate, one of the confusing elements of the
[4:43] mailing which unfortunately the state did not allow us to make any changes to the mailing.
[4:48] It was a it was boilerplate language every county across Iowa sent out the exact same mailing
[4:55] It on the back side it compares a
[4:58] FY 24 tax rate with a $100,000 home and then an FY 25 tax rate with a
[5:04] $100,000 home and does not take into account that assessed values on those homes change
[5:11] Either every year every two years
[5:13] So I did want to just point that out that while it compares the tax rates
[5:17] It does not compare a change in value or
[5:19] With the rollback the same in both years. No, the rollback has changed as well
[5:23] And I do have a slide on the rollback amounts as well. Thank you
[5:28] So the FY 25 budget summary for just Lynn County, we don't we're not discussing the information for like the cities or the schools today
[5:36] Just for the Lynn County portion
[5:38] The levy rate proposed is proposed to increase from five point nine six to six dollars and seven cents
[5:45] The rural rate, we're proposing a decrease from $2.71 to $2.63, and this does include
[5:54] the reduction of $1 for rural residents from the local option sales tax allocation that
[5:59] was voted on, and I have another slide in here about that allocation of lost.
[6:07] The expenditure budget, so the expenditures are what the board is proposing to spend
[6:13] for the fiscal year the expenditure budget is 157.1 million which is an
[6:18] increase of 3.2% from the prior year that equates to an increase of about 4.9
[6:24] million dollars and I've had questions on you know what does that for what is
[6:28] that 4.9 million comprised of and it's primarily comprised of the
[6:33] following five items we have increases in salaries and wages so for non
[6:38] bargaining unit and confidential employees, those are budgeted at 4%.
[6:43] Bargaining unit contracts for AFSCME, AFSCME Conservation, AFSCME EMA went up to 4%.
[6:49] Bargaining unit contracts for PPME, Sargents, and Assistant County Attorneys went to 5.75%.
[6:57] We did not need to include an increase for health or dental rates in the FY25 budget.
[7:04] We also saw an average increase of 9% in our software contracts.
[7:10] Those softwares that we use we literally cannot conduct business without them
[7:15] and we're kind of at the mercy of the vendors on those increases.
[7:19] Additionally, we saw increases in utilities.
[7:22] We saw about 11% increase in our electric bills,
[7:25] 6% increase in gas and 5% increase in water.
[7:29] In November of 2024, we will have a presidential election and there have been some costs related
[7:35] to that election that went up that, you know, were required to have a certain number of
[7:41] precincts or polling places or technology available.
[7:45] And so those costs are unavoidable as well.
[7:48] And then lastly, we had an increase in our debt service, Levy, and that is due to
[7:53] the issuance of bonds from the voter-approved water and land legacy.
[7:57] Yes.
[7:58] And that was three cents three cents.
[8:03] So in addition to the expenditure budget, which is what we are going to spend
[8:07] We have a revenue budget, which is what we are going to bring in and we do have revenues other than property taxes
[8:12] That I think the county works really hard to generate to you know supplement the property tax revenue that we get
[8:19] Revenues actually increased by six point four percent some of that is the increase in property taxes
[8:25] but then we also have a decent increase in investment earnings, camping revenue, and local option sales tax.
[8:32] Local option sales tax revenue is budgeted.
[8:35] 3.8 million is budgeted for road construction, 1.9 million for conservation projects,
[8:42] and 1.9 million in property tax relief for rural residents.
[8:45] And again, that allocation was a voter-approved allocation to make that split.
[8:50] But unfortunately in FY 25 we saw a decrease of 1.6 million in federal inmate revenue so
[9:00] that we had to make up the board did make some cuts to the budget to address that decrease
[9:06] in revenue.
[9:08] And then lastly for the FY 25 budget there were no offers approved.
[9:12] There were a couple million dollars in offer submitted but there were no extra funds available
[9:17] and the board chose not to increase the levy further
[9:20] to approve any additional offers.
[9:23] I think you should say what an offer is.
[9:26] So an offer is a request for a new initiative,
[9:28] a new staff person, not necessarily a new vehicle.
[9:32] We have a separate process to request a new vehicle.
[9:35] But this would be like if somebody
[9:36] and not a grant funded position.
[9:38] This would be a general fund funded request
[9:41] that is new to the department
[9:43] or that is a new staff person.
[9:45] And countywide we had no that we didn't we were not able to approve any of we correct
[9:49] We're unable to fund any of those the request did come in and and obviously the board listened to those but
[9:54] We didn't the funding wasn't there
[9:56] As long as there are people here should I think it should also be noted on behalf of the sheriff's department
[10:03] that
[10:04] We were down to like nine inmates. I believe for the federal marshals. They weren't utilizing the whole
[10:12] agreement that they agreed two years ago and so the 1.6 million was a little I'm
[10:18] going to call it fictitious to begin with because it's based on inmates it's
[10:22] based on inmates and then a per diem per inmate right but but we were receiving
[10:26] far less inmates all the time so him giving that up or the sheriff's office
[10:30] giving that up isn't the impact that it appears to be sure so
[10:41] I also had
[10:42] quite a few questions on the property tax process.
[10:46] The process involves multiple different offices
[10:49] at the county, at the cities, at the schools,
[10:51] at Kirkwood Egg Extension, all those loving authorities.
[10:55] But it does start with the assessment of property,
[10:57] and that is done by either the county
[10:59] or the city of Cedar Rapids Assessor
[11:00] depending on where an individual lives.
[11:03] Once those properties are assessed,
[11:06] the auditor's office, the county auditor's office,
[11:08] takes those valuations and totals them
[11:11] by taxing jurisdiction and by class.
[11:13] So there's multiple classes of property.
[11:15] We have residential, we have egg, commercial, et cetera.
[11:20] The Department of Revenue is responsible for looking
[11:23] at those assessed values and determining what part
[11:27] of that assessed value should be taxable.
[11:29] We do not, if you have a $250,000 home,
[11:31] we do not tax all $250,000 of that.
[11:34] It is rolled back by a certain percentage each year,
[11:37] which then helps to cap the state overall
[11:40] in growth. This year the rollback was significantly different for almost every
[11:46] class except for commercial then it has been in previous years and I have a
[11:50] couple slides on that as well. The cities the schools and the counties all
[11:54] hold their budget meetings to determine expenditures and their ability to
[11:57] generate additional revenues like grants or charges for services. Again we
[12:01] talked about our meetings start in December or in November excuse me and
[12:05] go through February each jurisdiction is going to be a little bit
[12:08] different. The amount of tax revenue that is needed is determined during those
[12:13] budget meetings and we divide that into that taxable value. So the taxable value
[12:18] is the assessed value rolled back by the state to a taxable value and then we
[12:22] use that to calculate the tax rate. The tax rate is then what is applied
[12:27] against that taxable value that and that creates a property tax bill. So
[12:32] you have a taxable value, a tax rate, and then you get a tax bill. Once a
[12:37] citizen pays their tax bill they do pay that to the Lynn County treasure but
[12:41] obviously that's not all of Lynn County's money so the Lynn County treasure
[12:44] then distributes that money to the various levying authorities like the
[12:48] schools or the city so that everybody gets their piece of what was levied
[12:53] against a property. And Sarah can I just add in here I had a couple people who
[12:58] had questions and it ended up there were more questions on their
[13:02] assessments and right now and I know this isn't necessarily the topic we're
[13:08] having right now but for I received this from Jerry Witt our county assessor
[13:13] that the appeal process for the 2024 assessments are now until the end of
[13:23] April for people. I think it's just a good time since we're talking about
[13:26] property tax process to just highlight that one more time that if if you can
[13:33] only appeal your 2024 right now until April 30th but you do have that window
[13:37] until April 30th right now. Right and so the the 2024 assessment will apply to
[13:42] the FY26 budget. No. You have to wait till public comment. That might be but we
[13:50] Okay, I'm just looking off what Jerry was and that information is available on the county assessor's website and the city assessor's website
[13:59] But yes, that actually applies to the FY 26 taxes
[14:03] So the period to appeal your assessment for the upcoming tax bill that's coming in August was last year
[14:12] All right, can I just read this real quick the appeal period for the 2024 assessments is right now
[14:18] But it will not change 2023 assessments. You need to contact our office the assessor's office
[14:24] We will schedule an appointment for a walkthrough of the property if we have not had one in many years
[14:27] Formal petitions are accepted at any time, but will be considered
[14:32] untimely filed if received before April 2nd or postmarked after April 30th
[14:37] And that's for anyone who doesn't live in Cedar Rapids. That's right outside of
[14:42] municipalities that don't contract or
[14:44] or the purview of the Lynn County Assessor.
[14:46] So the Cedar Rapids Assessor is maybe different.
[14:49] I don't know what the Cedar Rapids City Assessor is saying.
[14:51] So if you live in Cedar Rapids,
[14:53] you contact the Cedar Rapids Assessor.
[14:58] Oh boy, this did not pass.
[15:02] Okay, we're gonna skip that slide. What this pie chart is supposed to show, which I'm not
[15:06] on mine, it's clear, but on here it is obviously not, is that Lynn County only gets a piece
[15:10] of that tax bill so that we get about 14 to 16% of a resident's taxes. The other portions
[15:21] go to, again, the cities, the schools. The schools typically receive about 38% of a property
[15:26] tax bill. The cities typically receive about 42 percent and then there's some
[15:31] miscellaneous levies that receive the other five percent. There are school
[15:36] districts, Lin-Mar and others that have done significant bonding that may be the
[15:40] majority of someone's tax bill. Could, it would vary by district. I believe
[15:45] Cedar Rapids went down but I know Mount Vernon and college community went up.
[15:49] So yeah, everybody's situation is going to be different. Ours is the smallest
[15:52] portion. Ours would be the second smallest the miscellaneous levies would
[15:57] be the smallest. But yeah I did receive some phone calls from people who were
[16:01] curious about you know what's Prairie doing and stuff like that. On the budget
[16:05] mailing are the phone numbers for those other jurisdictions and residents
[16:08] would need to call those authorities to find out what they're doing with
[16:12] their levy rate. I don't have that information. And so another you know
[16:17] I would say the majority of the phone calls people were wondering you know
[16:20] what is this going to do to my taxes?
[16:23] And obviously, tax bills don't come out until August,
[16:26] but there are some tools that you can use
[16:28] to kind of figure out whether or not
[16:30] your taxes would go up or down.
[16:32] There's a tax estimator on both the county assessor's
[16:35] website and the city assessor's website
[16:38] where you can enter in your address.
[16:40] It takes you to your property.
[16:41] You can see your assessed value for multiple years.
[16:45] You can see tax bill information for multiple years,
[16:47] and then there's an estimator on there.
[16:49] And in big letters underneath it says this is an estimate only, but it can give residents
[16:54] an idea of what might be happening with their tax bill for the upcoming fiscal year.
[17:01] The assessed value again is decided by the city or county assessor.
[17:05] I'm not going to pretend like I know exactly what their formula is, but I do know that
[17:09] they take market comps into consideration, homes that have sold in the neighborhood
[17:13] or the area, to determine those assessed values.
[17:16] for Cedar Rapids the average residential increase was about 15% and for non
[17:24] Cedar Rapids so for the County Assessor it was an average residential
[17:27] increase of 25%. In Cedar Rapids they are estimating for residential
[17:33] properties only that about 66% of residential properties saw we'll see a
[17:39] decrease in the Lynn County tax portion and about 34% of residential
[17:43] properties will see an increase in the Lynn County tax portion. Again, that's
[17:47] just Lynn County. Even if your Lynn County portion decreased, your whole
[17:51] tax bill could go up because of something the city or the school did. For
[17:55] the County Assessor's Office, they're estimating that about 24 percent of
[17:59] residential properties will see a decrease in the Lynn County tax portion,
[18:02] and about 76 percent of residential properties will see an increase in the
[18:06] Lynn County tax portion. Supervisor Rogers touched a little bit on the
[18:10] state rollback. The residential state rollback, which is determined by the
[18:13] Department of Revenue for the entire state of Iowa, changed from FY24 to FY25.
[18:20] In FY24, 54.65 percent of a home's value was taxed. In FY25, only 46.34
[18:28] percent of a home's assessed value is going to be taxed. So that's this
[18:33] pretty significant change and kind of counteracts some of the increase in the
[18:38] assessed value. It's a big calculation that has a lot of moving parts. This is
[18:42] just one of them that people would need to take into account. When you use the tax
[18:46] estimator on the county assessor's website or the city assessor's website,
[18:50] it does take into account the new rollback and shows you what that rollback
[18:53] is. Those websites also take into account if you have a homestead exemption,
[18:57] military, you know, any of those types of things added on to your bill or
[19:02] taken away I should say. This slide is a little bit busy but this gives you just a very brief
[19:11] overview of what might happen to again only the Lynn County portion of a tax bill depending
[19:16] on how your assessed value changed. In the first example we have a 15% increase in assessed
[19:22] value for City of Cedar Rapids residents which again that's the average they saw.
[19:26] So in FY 24 the prior fiscal year if you had a $200,000 home and that home went up
[19:32] to $230,000 you would see a $4 decrease in your Lynn County tax that you would
[19:39] pay. Again that rollback plays a factor in that. $4 per thought or just $4
[19:45] total. $4 in your tax bill. Lynn County portion only not the total tax
[19:51] bill. Then in the county the highest assessed value that the county assessor
[19:58] saw there were some areas of the county that saw a 40% increase in their
[20:01] assessed value for those taxpayers again not in the city of Cedar Rapids and
[20:07] Lynn County portion only could see a hundred and thirty seven dollar increase
[20:11] in their tax bill on a two hundred thousand dollar home two hundred
[20:15] thousand dollar home that went to a two hundred thousand two hundred eighty
[20:18] thousand dollar value so we're taking to account the increase in value the
[20:22] change in rollback and the change in the levy rate and that that comes out to
[20:26] about 21 percent I did the same thing then for a 25 percent increase or a 5
[20:32] percent decrease because there are some county assessed properties that saw
[20:36] decrease in their home value for those residents they could potentially see up
[20:40] to a 17 percent decrease in the Lynn County portion of their tax bill so
[20:45] So it's just important to highlight that everybody's situation is different, assessed values,
[20:50] the percent of change of assessed values could change between you and your neighbor.
[20:55] It's not necessarily all of one city went up 40%, all of one area went up 25%.
[21:01] It's very different.
[21:03] And then again, each taxpayer has a different combination of tax rates depending on what
[21:08] city and school district they live in.
[21:09] But these are just four examples.
[21:12] When we talk about egg and commercial, again, those values are determined by the county
[21:16] and city assessor.
[21:17] A little bit different for egg, but, you know, we're going to keep it high level.
[21:23] For the county increase in agricultural properties, they saw an average of about 32 percent.
[21:29] City of Cedar Rapids has quite a bit less egg properties, but they did have a 18 percent
[21:36] in the egg properties that they do have.
[21:37] The county saw an increase in assessed value in commercial properties of 18%,
[21:42] and then the Cedar Rapids City Assessor saw an average increase of about 11% in commercial.
[21:51] There's a state rollback for agricultural properties.
[21:54] You can see that changed by quite a bit.
[21:57] 91% of those agricultural properties assessed value was taxed in FY24.
[22:02] In FY25, that's only 71.84%.
[22:06] So, another big change in the rollback by the state.
[22:10] For commercial properties, there was no change in the state rollback from FY24.
[22:15] The rollback is a little bit more complicated for commercial properties.
[22:19] They actually get a residential rollback, so they'll only pay 46% of the burst $150,000
[22:25] in value.
[22:26] After that, anything above $150,000, they'll pay 90%.
[22:30] But again, no change from FY24.
[22:35] and then this is the same chart just for either an egg property or commercial
[22:38] property with those same percentages that I just talked about farmland in the
[22:43] county could see a 3.9% increase if their assessed value went up by the
[22:50] 32% and then in the city they could see a 7% decrease for commercial
[22:56] properties in the county they could see a 19% increase if their commercial
[23:01] property increased by 18% and then in the city 11% they could see a 12% increase again
[23:07] that's only in the Lynn County portion of their taxes which is you know 14 to 16% of the total
[23:13] tax bill.
[23:18] Okay that was a lot of information. Do you guys have any questions or would
[23:24] you like to add anything to what I presented? Well again Sarah and Dawn thank you so much
[23:31] for all that you did this year to guide the board through really challenging budget decisions,
[23:38] much of it a result of what we call House File 718, which really caps the growth or places
[23:46] growth caps on municipalities and we experienced that this year where we grew 4.4%, but based
[23:53] on legislation we were only allowed to keep 2.4%.
[23:56] We had increases in utilities, increases in salary and benefits, marginal increases in healthcare and again a decrease in the rollback.
[24:07] So there was a lot of pressures placed on this board to make some decisions where we I think ultimately ended up cutting about $2 million.
[24:14] dollars if I'm if I recall correctly and adding about two million into the supplemental levy it was almost a
[24:22] About it was a very balanced cut for
[24:26] Certain services and to maintain certain level of services not just not even to grow just to maintain
[24:32] And that was a decision that the majority of the board felt was appropriate
[24:36] All these meetings have been open to the public
[24:39] Starting from the budget forum all the way till today
[24:42] Do appreciate people's questions. I know you've gotten calls. I've gotten calls my colleagues have all gotten calls
[24:49] This is important. I think that this letter
[24:53] Again was an unfunded mandate by the state
[24:55] There was a very quick turnaround time the reason why I think people got it on Friday and we're having a meeting today
[25:01] Is that was the legislative requirement? It didn't allow us any ability to change the language. We have to pay for it
[25:08] Out of our own budgets. There's not money's provided
[25:12] And I think it, while the idea was to create more transparency,
[25:16] I think it also caused a lot of confusion.
[25:19] And so hopefully the legislature looks at that
[25:21] and maybe makes some improvements to it
[25:23] if they require municipalities to,
[25:27] or us to send it out on behalf of municipalities.
[25:30] So again, I appreciate it.
[25:31] I look forward to any comments that people might have,
[25:33] but this was a challenging budget year.
[25:36] And again, if you could just highlight
[25:37] what the next step, so people listening
[25:41] or who are in attendance today want to come to future meetings on our budget, when could
[25:45] they do so?
[25:46] Sure.
[25:47] So there's no action that technically gets taken today, but at the 10 a.m. meeting we
[25:52] will set another public hearing where we actually would discuss the approval and certification
[25:57] of the final budget and I would request at the 10 a.m. meeting that that be set
[26:02] for April 17th at 10 a.m.
[26:05] So that would be the next and last budget meeting.
[26:08] So we would vote up or down. The entire budget. Yeah, you're not able to increase. No, I mean, I'm sorry. We either approve. Oh, yes. Okay. We're not at April 17th meeting. And that's this board's decision. Okay. Thank you.
[26:28] Just again a little bit.
[26:32] It's worth repeating that the amount of work that you and Don have put in for all of these
[26:39] months, it's not just today or this week, of listening to us.
[26:44] We worked with different department heads, electeds, for since last November on identifying
[26:52] ways that we could save money.
[26:53] We ended up having to make a cut to our budget of, I think it was $1.1 million, $2 million
[27:00] this year, at the same time trying to find efficiencies to make it work.
[27:06] When earlier you talked about no offers were taken, there are many departments and many
[27:12] electeds that had, they identified that these are either staff positions or things
[27:17] that they need in their office or their departments to move forward.
[27:21] and we were unable to fund any of those so no offers were accepted and just to you
[27:30] know it when
[27:36] we move to raise the the levy rate from to six dollars and seven
[27:41] cents from five dollars and ninety six cents I know we're talking about 11
[27:46] cents there but every single penny I think we worked hard to you know take
[27:53] in consideration. These are people's hard earned dollars and we want to be good stewards
[27:57] of that as well. And I think that the budget we put forward was fair and reasonable. We
[28:04] made our fair share of cuts and, you know, kept in mind the balance that we need to
[28:12] strike with providing a level of excellence of service for people here in Lynn County
[28:19] and also understanding that, you know, every penny that people are paying and it's not an
[28:26] excuse or it's not, you know, whatever. Lynn County is 15% of the property, about 15%
[28:33] or average is 14 to 16 throughout the county of your property tax bill and, you know, I
[28:41] was trying to see the silver lining of that letter. It ended up causing a lot of confusion
[28:44] to folks but at least I think some people were able to see from that the
[28:49] breakdown of where your property taxes are going and how we're using that and
[28:53] just wanted to say thank you all for your work and thank the whole county all
[28:57] the department heads everyone around the county was looking for ways where we
[29:01] could find budget efficiencies and looking for ways that they could be
[29:04] good stewards of tax dollars as well moving forward and still provide the
[29:08] level of excellence that people have come to know and expect here in
[29:12] Inland County and also many things that were statutorily obligated to provide either you can call those unfunded mandates or not
[29:19] but you know, we really have to find that balance of
[29:24] Providing those services. So thank you. I look forward today to hearing people's public comment on
[29:31] on this budget and
[29:34] You can't be thanked enough for all of the work and you know from us having to deal with us sometimes
[29:41] elected department heads but then also wielding conversations and questions
[29:46] from the public too so thank you very much. Yeah I want to first of all clarify
[29:51] that none of my comments have anything to do with the lack of work or time that
[29:55] you too and your colleagues upstairs put into the budget.
[30:00] I believe one thing that was good that happened out of the mailing, we actually have people
[30:04] at a budget meeting. So welcome. It's really, maybe next year, this process starts in November,
[30:12] but it really starts for the public piloter than that, I would say, when we really start
[30:18] having public come to the meetings, and we really start putting the budget together.
[30:21] When does that start?
[30:22] We usually, our public forum is usually like the Monday before Thanksgiving is the first
[30:28] public meeting and then obviously the board discusses initiatives at the 10 a.m.
[30:32] meeting that week as well right so that's really the meeting that the public
[30:36] needs to get energized about and start coming to you because then then your
[30:40] input is taken into consideration from the beginning I understand what
[30:47] legislature did what they did they were overwhelmed with people's phone calls
[30:52] and messages to do something about property taxes because in many
[30:55] situations counties weren't willing to do it so I'm not saying that that would be
[31:00] how I fixed it how they fixed it but that was what they did and we have to
[31:03] live with it I believe we only actually we did not take two million from our
[31:10] budget it was somewhere between 1.1 and 800,000 and I personally believe that
[31:15] that we could have probably done done better but many of the things are the
[31:19] way they are it's a it's not a three-legged stool like the
[31:23] legislature where you have two branches in the governor, but we do have three supervisors
[31:28] and so at the end, it's a compromised budget that probably none of us are happy with.
[31:34] Or maybe some of you are happy with it, but I think we are all three frustrated about
[31:40] where it ended up.
[31:42] Like I said, nothing bearing on you guys, and we are frustrated for different reasons.
[31:47] meetings, but we did spend a lot of time with it. And I hope that in future meetings early
[31:53] on that the public does start coming to meetings and voice in their opinions. I know I got
[31:58] several phone calls about today's meeting. And I'm grateful for them. In fact, I stopped
[32:05] and talked to a group of people this morning. I encourage them to come. Unfortunately, they
[32:10] felt talking to me there was all they really needed. But that's just the way it goes.
[32:16] But but we didn't we do spend a lot of time with it
[32:19] Our staff spends a whole lot of time with it and we do try to do the best that we can do in a combined effort
[32:27] And just if I may from a historical perspective having some tenure on this board
[32:32] We do budget zero percent growth and operations. We don't do an automatic everyone gets one percent three percent
[32:37] And it's been that way for well over a decade zero percent in operational growth
[32:44] The levy rate today is lower than when this was a five-member board back in 2009, even
[32:51] though we've seen a flood, we've seen a recession, economic recovery, a derecho.
[32:58] This board, previous boards and with our staff here have really looked at how to be one
[33:05] of the most efficient and effective forms of local government and the fact that I
[33:10] I think you can compare us to almost any other municipality
[33:12] and you would be hard pressed to find people
[33:14] who have reduced the levy rates.
[33:16] Some of it due to the state buying out
[33:18] the mental health system, but before that we were reducing
[33:23] our levy rates, finding efficiencies not growing
[33:26] as much as we could or should as a growing community.
[33:30] So that's something throughout time I have been proud of
[33:32] that individuals' county tax rates are still lower
[33:37] today than they were 15 years ago.
[33:38] So that may be efficiency, that may be effectiveness but it is where we are today and I agree with
[33:50] Supervisor Zumba that this was a compromised budget.
[33:54] He didn't get everything he wanted.
[33:55] I didn't get everything I wanted.
[33:57] Kirsten didn't get everything she wanted in terms of growth or cuts or vice versa.
[34:02] We had to make some really difficult decisions that meant telling, again, certain electeds
[34:09] or department heads who were telling us that they have key positions that need to be filled
[34:12] or, you know, the county attorney saying they need felony prosecutors too because they
[34:17] are just overwhelmed or sheriff's deputies that were just unable to hire based on
[34:22] this next year will be a much different year, substantially different year.
[34:27] And so we really do while we're looking at this year's budget now our eyes are already on the horizon for next year
[34:33] And I think some very difficult very difficult budget decisions are going to have to be made. So obviously my comments there. I
[34:41] Have one more request. I guess of my colleagues
[34:44] Up to you guys, but if we have anybody from the public that comments that
[34:50] warrants some discussion or
[34:52] The clarification would that be all right with you guys if we did that?
[34:56] I mean, normally the public speaks, but there's no interaction, so I'm just asking if that's
[35:03] okay with my colleagues.
[35:04] I think you're holding a public hearing, so there can be back and forth.
[35:11] Great.
[35:11] Thank you, Becky.
[35:12] As long as it's on this issue.
[35:14] Yes.
[35:14] Okay.
[35:14] Great.
[35:15] Thank you.
[35:15] And Sarah and Dawn, you're both willing to answer any clarifying questions as well.
[35:21] Yes.
[35:21] Thank you.
[35:23] Okay.
[35:24] We're going to begin our public comment period.
[35:26] This is a five-minute limit per speaker
[35:29] It's an opportunity for the public to address the board on any subject pertaining to board business
[35:34] Do we need to close the public hearing then?
[35:41] Is there any please welcome
[35:46] Are you going to time?
[35:48] I can do it.
[35:49] You got it, Ben?
[35:50] I got it.
[35:50] Great.
[35:50] Thank you.
[35:51] Could you state your name and address, please?
[35:53] Or location?
[35:54] Nelson Bethke, 1276 Ivanhoe Road, Mount Vernon.
[36:00] I appreciate the effort everybody's put into this budget.
[36:03] And I understand that it's a difficult thing.
[36:06] Nobody likes taxes.
[36:07] But I think most people understand that they are a necessary evil in our society.
[36:13] A couple things that I wanted to mention, I think it would help a lot if there was some
[36:22] written communication about the choices that are being made by both the budget, the people
[36:31] put together the budget and the members of the county.
[36:38] If that was disseminated, maybe along with that statement that's mandated by the state,
[36:45] unless they're prohibiting that, I think it would be helpful.
[36:49] I think people would be much more accepting of it.
[36:54] The other thing is I was curious if we could also have some information
[36:58] and perhaps it's been just discussed during the public meetings,
[37:01] but if there was some way that we could put together some kind of a written document
[37:06] about the cost savings that have been implemented I'm sure there have been
[37:11] cost savings implemented I can't believe there haven't been but to the general
[37:16] public for the most of us we don't see that all we see is we want more money we
[37:22] want more money we want more money from your point of view you may say well we've
[37:26] already cut we've cut we've cut we've cut we don't see that we don't
[37:29] know that you know that but if we don't know that that creates some
[37:33] angst on our part thinking that there's just a constant demand for additional money and
[37:38] No effort made for efficiencies consolidations
[37:42] Cuts in areas where there's redundancy that type of thing
[37:45] I think it would help a lot if you put something together that was able to be published in
[37:52] writing
[37:53] Just a suggestion
[37:55] Extra work. Yeah, but I think it would help
[37:58] Reduce the amount of pushback you got when taxes go up
[38:03] The other thing I had to notice that 11% increase in electric utility
[38:09] What happened all the savings from renewable energy that we were supposed to get I was supposed to reduce our
[38:15] Electrical charges not increase them by 11% and just seems odd to me
[38:19] So that's just about all I had to say. Thank you.
[38:28] Is there anyone else who would like to make a public comment?
[38:35] Thank you for being here today if you could state your name and
[38:37] My name is Kelly Murda and I live at 4194 Quail Ridge Road in Center Point and to
[38:46] kind of echo what the gentleman said about the electric rates that's the one
[38:50] that draws my most attention. I actually requested budget information from the
[38:57] county to look at what's been paid previously what's being budgeted. I have
[39:03] concerns about the homeless overflow shelter. I have concerns about general
[39:07] assistance I have concerns about all of those areas of the budgets that are impacted significantly.
[39:14] Let me look at what it was and what it is and now we're looking at the budget.
[39:18] There are actions being taken by this board to approve projects that are driving those
[39:23] increases of rates.
[39:25] And I would urge that you take action to file with the utility board your concerns
[39:31] about the impact that the rate increases are having on our budget this year and
[39:37] budget next year. The 11% I think is anticipated but that's not a guaranteed. We don't know what's
[39:43] going to happen at this date with those budgets impacts from utilities. So thank you for your time.
[39:49] Thank you.
[39:53] Did you want to, I'm sorry, this is maybe now the time if you felt that we gave
[39:58] an incorrect date. Yes, absolutely. Thank you.
[40:05] Just want to state your name please. Morning.
[40:08] Jane Russell. Good morning. 5265 Frozen Hill Road, Monticello. So the date on the
[40:14] board a review at the April 30th. I just wanted to make sure that you did. It
[40:19] concludes April 30th as far as the petitions being able to be filed. They
[40:23] are considered untitlingly and then typically denied. So that causes some
[40:28] anguish. So if it's postmarked after April 30th. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So I
[40:34] just have a perspective to offer on the increase in budget. I just you
[40:41] and we paid our final payment for the current taxes due
[40:45] and when I look at what my tax bill will be coming up,
[40:50] I will be giving 26% of the very generous raise
[40:56] I just received, starting July 1st.
[41:00] I work for another county municipality,
[41:03] so my raise will start July 1st.
[41:05] 26% of that raise, not take home pay, my total raise,
[41:09] will be going to the increased in tax bill that I will receive for this budget. When I
[41:15] compared to what I just paid. I live in a very modest house. I just received a generous
[41:21] raise. So I'm okay. I'm okay. But there are people who are not. So if you're looking at
[41:28] that across the entire county, that's a problem. That's a problem for young families
[41:33] who are trying to pencil out their budgets themselves. I would like to address your statement
[41:40] on the levy rate not increasing since 2009 or decreasing. I'm sorry you said it decreased
[41:48] since 2009. What was the change in taxable value for the county since 2009?
[41:55] What was
[41:56] the I mean what was your taxable value for the county in 2009 versus your taxable value
[42:01] now. That's why the levy rate went down. It is. It's not because the budgets have stayed the same.
[42:10] I just wanted to point that out. Thank you.
[42:16] Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to
[42:22] come to the mic and add
[42:26] their public comment?
[42:31] Okay, I'll do one more call. Anyone else would
[42:33] like to come to the microphone to make a comment we will go ahead and I'll second
[42:43] it any further discussion on favor say aye aye and we will move to adjournment
[42:48] thank you all for being here today and your participation