County adopts FY26 budget, approves elected officials’ salaries

     Jones County's Fiscal Year 2026 budget has been adopted, and taxes have been certified.

   During the Jones County Supervisors' April 22 board meeting, the board also took action to establish elected officials' salaries for FY26.

   The county's total proposed expenditures for FY26 are $23,540,567. Total revenues are $20,714,347.

   The budget reflects a countywide tax levy of $8,188,085 (which is made up of $8,055,030 from property taxes, plus $133,055 from utility replacement tax) against a $1,331,067,006 valuation. This produces a rate of $6.15152 per $1,000.

   The budget also reflects a rural tax levy of $3,348,627 (which is made up of $3,300,889 from property taxes, plus $47,738 from utility replacement tax) against a $956,750 valuation. This produces a rate of $3.50000 per $1,000.

   The supervisors also designated portions of the projected June 30, 2025, unreserved fund balance. Funds in the General Basic Fund are for county facility improvements, replacements, additions, capital repairs, major software upgrades and equipment that cannot be absorbed in the general operating budget of any department. In FY26, $35,000 will be added to the previously designated balance.

   "Of the $35,000, $5,000 is for the aerial mapping project that's been ongoing," noted County Auditor Whitney Hein. "$30,000 is committed for Conservation projects."

   In the General Supplement Fund, $20,000 will be added for future voting equipment replacement.

   "That accumulates until it needs to be spent," Hein said.

   For the Secondary Road Fund, unused local option sales tax has been designated per ballot measure for roads and bridges.

   "These designations of committed and restricted fund balances indicate that Jones County prefers to use available financial resources for the specific purposes set forth, and although committed, the funds are to remain an integral part of the spendable or appropriable resources of Jones County for cash flow purposes," notes the budget adoption resolution.

   Back in February, the board discussed and preliminarily approved (for budgetary purposes) the salaries for elected officials. Now that there is no longer a Compensation Board, the board "used an elected official comparable method using comparables from the Iowa State Association of Counties (ISAC)."

   The following salaries will take effect July 1, 2025:

   • Attorney, 6.5 percent increase, $142,583.80

   • Sheriff, 4 percent increase, $142,883.70

   • Auditor, 5 percent increase, $89,214.71

   • Treasurer, 4 percent increase, $86,717.62

   • Recorder, 5 percent increase, $84,451.25

   • Supervisors, 3 percent increase, $35,589.24

   "I did speak with HR, Mike Galloway, about how we came up with these figures," commented Supervisor Joe Oswald. "He was 100 percent ok with what we're adopting and how we came up with our percentages."

   Hein also spent some time during the FY26 budget public hearing, offering stats of the past 20 years.

   The county is levying $11,536,712. The urban rate will be $6.15152. The rural rate is $9.65152.

   "The rural rate has flattened out," she said. "This will be the third consecutive year where that total rural rate remained the same at $9.65152. The urban rate is starting to decrease a little bit. That's because we decreased the General Supplemental rate and increased the Rural Services rate."

   Compared to FY25, the county is levying $133,551 more, which is a 1.17 percent increase.

   "Pretty minimal increase," Hein said. "The last time we had this type of increase, a lower increase, was in FY22 at .42 percent.

   "For the taxes levied, over the past 20 years, that has been on a steady incline," continued Hein. "When you think about the economy and the environment we live in, it's also very much different than 20 years ago."

   When you compare the countywide levy rate with the rural rate, there is a decrease of 3.99 percent with the countywide rate. There is a 16.50 percent increase in the rural rate.

   "But when you combine those two, you get 1.17 percent overall increase," offered Hein.

   She said the comment that the rural people are being taxed more is just not true.

   "We took out about $400,000 out of the General Supplemental Fund," said Hein. "If we kept that $400,000 in the countywide rate, rural people would be paying that, too."

   Hein showed a breakdown on what goes into the county's expenditures and where the county's revenues stem from. Forty-four percent ($10,254,531) goes toward wages and benefits. Sixteen percent ($3,744,935) is supplies. Services are 29 percent ($6,804,164).

   "That would be things the county pays other people to do for us, such as publications, property and liability insurance, mileage and lodging, phone service, internet, etc.," Hein said. "These percentages do not change a lot of year to year. Looking at last year's, they may move 1 percentage point up or down. Really they stay pretty steady through the fiscal years."

   Under revenues, 53 percent ($10,897,978) comes from property and utility taxes. Seven percent ($1,469,297) comes from other taxes like LOST (local option sales tax). Intergovernmental is 30 percent ($6,288,774).

   "That's revenues coming from other governments, local, state, and federal," Hein said.

   When you look at all of the county's departments as a whole, they are decreasing the county's expenditures by 1.86 percent, or $445,902.

   "That can vary greatly," Hein noted. "There could be a large project planned, and Secondary Roads has a large budget because of the project. Or Conservation might have a larger budget one year because they have a large project planned."

   Supervisor Jon Zirkelbach pointed out that the $1.2 million under Secondary Roads does not mean the county is taking on a brand-new road project.

   "It's mostly overlays, updating existing roadways. It looks like we're building a new road every year," he said.

   County Engineer Derek Snead clarified that the $1.2 million is just local construction funds.

   "We are actually allocated additional funds through different sources, whether that's state or federal or bridge funds," he said. "On average annually, our construction costs are quite a bit higher than that $1.2 million.

   "That $1.2 million is not an average or anything along those lines," continued Snead. "We are programming that number of projects for this current year. Next year, it could be $2 million. The year after that, it could be $200,000. When we accumulate funds, we save up for projects that are in our five-year program and expend the funds once we've built that balance high enough to pay for the project. We project the next five years of revenues and we program projects that could be paid for in that five-year period."