The county faces another tough budget year

     The Jones County Board of Supervisors and elected officials are busy diving into budget season for the Fiscal Year 2026 county budget.

   Much like last fiscal year, County Auditor Whitney Hein has warned county officials and department heads that this budget will be tight; the board of supervisors is facing some tough decisions.

   House File (HF) 718, which became known as the property tax law, has counties and cities looking hard at their budgets in terms of where they save and how they can spend their funds.

   During the Jan. 2 board meeting, Hein provided an update to the board regarding the county's funds and taxable valuations.

   Having completed the county's taxable valuations, Hein noted that all county departmental budgets have to be compiled before she has a clear idea of the county's total expenses going into FY26.

   Due to the property tax law, there is a formula that has to be used and followed when it comes to what the county can levy in the General Basic and Rural Basic funds.

   "If we are under 2.75 percent," explained Hein, "you're not restricted; you don't have a growth restriction."

   This means the county could levy the maximum amount in those two funds.

   "For General Basic, we had a taxable growth of 2.48 percent," shared Hein, "which means we can levy the same levy rate as the current year, 4.06863 percent."

   If the county doesn't go with the levy rate, then the funds sitting in General Supplemental can't be used. This fund is used to pay for the county's health insurance, which Hein estimated a possible 15 percent increase in the cost.

   Anticipating a General Basic Fund levy rate of 4.06863 percent, that would produce a tax dollar growth of $131,000 over the current fiscal year.

   The law also stipulates that by FY29, counties and cities have to ratchet their funds down so that by FY29, there's a $3.50 hard cap for General Basic and $3.95 hard cap for Rural Basic. Hein told the board that in order to get the county's funds down to those hard caps, they should be levying at 3.89 percent in General Basic. That would produce $5,052,300 in tax dollars.

   For Rural Basic, the county is under 2.75 percent taxable growth.

   "It had a growth of 2.68 percent," said Hein. "But because we're under, there's no growth limiter."

   It currently sits at 3.08482 percent per levy rate.

   "We could increase that to the max of 3.95 percent," offered Hein. "That would give us about $905,000 if we increased it to the max."

   Hein was honest in her feelings about the ongoing legislation.

   "It feels like a little bit of a game," she said.

   She anticipates the Iowa Legislature further discussing property tax reform this session as well.

   In terms of the schedule for the FY26 county budget, Hein scheduled non-county, outside entities doing their funding request presentations on Jan. 14, 21, and 28. Those presentations will be at the end of the regular board meetings.

   County departments will offer their budget presentations throughout the day on Jan. 17 and conclude after the board meeting on Jan. 21.

   "That makes for a busy January," warned Hein. "That will hopefully get us through most of these presentations by the beginning of February. By the beginning of March, we have to have our max levy rate for notices that have to get sent out by March 4."