Second FY26 public hearing set for county budget

     After hearing from many Jones County taxpayers during the March 25 public hearing on the proposed property tax levy, the Jones County Supervisors are moving along in their Fiscal Year 2026 schedule to finalize the county budget.

   During the April 1 board meeting, the board set another public hearing concerning the budget for Tuesday, April 22, at 9 a.m.

   "After the proposed tax levy hearing last week, it was my understanding that you guys were pretty set on those levy rates that were published in the notice," prefaced County Auditor Whitney Hein.

   For a breakdown, she offered the following:

   • The gross taxes to be levied would be $11,536,712. That is made up of $11,355,919 in property taxes and $180,793 in utility replacement taxes.

   • The county is retaining $55,000 of the property tax levy dollars. It's being specifically designated toward county facility capital improvements, election equipment replacement, aerial tax map updates, and other one-time projects.

   • There is no county debt service levy.

   • The total revenues, not including transfers, will be $20,731,347.

   • The total expenditures, not including transfers, will be $23,540,567.

   "There are multiple reasons why our expenditures would be more than our revenues," explained Hein. "Some of that is spending of ARPA funds; we're still spending those down. That's money we had for a while but would be spending that down.

   As well as Secondary Roads and Conservation," continued Hein. "They have buckets of saved money that they've had for a while that will be going out as well."

   With the next hearing on April 22, the deadline Hein has to file the county's FY26 budget with the Iowa Department of Management is April 30.

   "So that would put us well ahead of the deadline," she told the board.

   The board asked Hein if she was worried about the county's fund balances. She said she was perfectly fine with where funds sit at going into the fiscal year.

   "I moved $498,000 from the General Supplemental Fund to General Basic for expenditures to even out in those fund balances a little," offered Hein. "Otherwise I'm not concerned with any of our ending fund balances.

   "I think we're at a spot where we're in good shape with those," she added. "We're not having an issue where we're worried about cash flow."

   Hein said she's heard about cash flow issues with other counties.

   "I'm thankful we're not in that," she said.

   In the past, and during the recent budget discussions, the board of supervisors and Hein have discussed maintaining and/or building up the carryover fund to help prepare the county for a worst-case scenario situation with the state's property tax legislation, should any changes come down the pipe.

   "Potentially build in a little bit of a buffer just to be able to maintain operations the best we can while transitions happen," Hein said. "Transitions can be rough."

   She wasn't optimistic, though, that any new property tax legislation would come out of the current legislative session.