LEE COUNTY – The Lee County Board of Supervisors could spend a little money on talent this year, while still reducing the levy for the second year in a row.
Preliminary budget figures show a projected levy rate for fiscal year 2027, which runs July 1, 2026, to June 30, 2027, of $12.09. That figure would be down from an 11-year high of $13.53 in fiscal year 2024. It will be the third year straight the levy has dropped as the county navigates a current property tax law requiring them to have a general basic levy of $3.50/$1,000 by 2030.
Despite the reduced levy, the county will collect an additional $1 million in property tax dollars due to increased valuations. Again, preliminarily, the county is projecting property tax revenues of $20,915,524 in the next fiscal year, compared with $19,928,601 in 2026.
County Budget Director Cindy Renstrom provided an updated, but still unofficial, comprehensive budget outlook for fiscal year 2027.
Expenditures for the year are projected at $45.96 million with a 3% base salary increase and revenues about $2.4 million under that at $43.56 million.
The $2.4 million shortfall will give the county an ending total fund balance of $18,585,454, on June 30, 2027, compared to $20,988,873 on the same date this year. There is a projected shortfall of $767,000 this fiscal year, while 2025 had a surplus of $835,929.
“When people hear deficit spending, they get all worried about that. And they should. But you also can’t stack. At some point, something’s got to come down. We all know we want to do something with property taxes and getting them down,” said Supervisor Garry Seyb.
“Just so that everyone knows, we did look at dropping to $3.50 and that was no.”
Renstrom said she asked the Department of Management if the county went to $3.50 for the basic service levy, which is currently set at $5.79/$1,000 and projected at $5.62, could they keep general supplemental fund and she was told the county could not keep both.
“She said ‘No’. And there’s no way we can move general supplemental into general basic at $3.50,” Renstrom said.
The county currently has a general supplemental levy of $2.94/$1,000 and that levy pays essentially for the county employee benefits, not including salary.
The largest budget in the county still belongs to Secondary Roads with an $11 million expense projection. They also have the largest revenue line at $9.76 million, comprised predominantly of federal and state grant streams and road programs.
The Lee County EMS department has the second largest budget at $5.92 million, while the Sheriff’s department is right behind at $5.8 million, and the Lee County Board of Health is projected at $4.6 million.
Following Tuesday’s regular board meeting, a compensation workshop was held for close to two-and-a-half hours. That work is being done by supervisors after the board voted to disband the independent county compensation board in 2025.
The board heard from elected officials, who run departments in the county, regarding salary increases for the upcoming fiscal year. They also heard from several appointend department heads, including County Engineer Ben Hull and IT Director Kevin Harter.
The board also held a brief discussion on a possible employer-sponsored 457 retirement plan for employees; increasing mileage reimbursement rates, cell phone stipends, and a possible cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA), which included discussion on percentage vs. flat dollar increases.
Lee County Attorney Ross Braden requested a 6% increase in salary to help retain talent in his office that is tied to his salary.
Lee County Auditor Sherri Yasenchok, Lee County Treasurer Becky Gaylord, and Lee County Recorder Nancy Booten all requested a 10% increase for fiscal year 2027. Lee County Sheriff Elliott Vandenberg compared a list of salaries of county sheriffs, comparable size police departments, and state law enforcement and said his salary was sufficient and requested no increase. It’s the second year in a row Vandenberg hasn’t requested a pay increase, following the Back the Blue law that pushed the county sheriff’s salary nearly 40% in fiscal year 2023.
That increase had a ripple effect through the state and Lee County. Even supervisors who have taken just two pay increases in the past 15 years, got a 10% bump that fiscal year, as did all county employees.
Supervisors also requested raises for themselves to about $42,575 annually up from $29,186, a 46% increase. Supervisor chair Ginger Knisley said if supervisors had gotten just a 3% annual increase over those 15 years that number would be $42,994.
The current supervisor salary ranks Lee County 96th out of 99 in salary in the state. The County is the 22nd highest in population. Supervisors in counties who rank three above Lee in population and three below average $45,205.
“If you have an active board that does what needs to be done to move the county forward, you have to get to that point,” he said.
“I think, over time, we’re going to affect real change,” Knisley said.
Chuck Holmes said supervisors who do the work do it for the work and not for the dollar.
“I understand what Chuck is saying, and I’ve wrestled with this for a while,” Seyb said.
“There’s no one in their right mind that would do this for what we’re getting paid,” he said. “There just isn’t. I would even argue that even at 22nd-ranked pay, if you’re doing the job and doing it right, that pay may not be sufficient.”
The employer-sponsored 457 retirement plan met with some resistance from Supervisor Denise Fraise. Fraise said she had wanted some data on how many employees would be interested in participating and Yasenchok said she would try to get a poll out to employees. But Fraise said she’s hearing from her constituents that the county shouldn’t be participating in more retirement plans other than IPERS.
She said IPERS currently costs the county about $1.2 million a year.
“I’m already gonna say I’m not going to vote for this because we’re already spending $1.2 million a year on IPERS,” she said. “I’ve heard from people in my district that we should not be using taxpayer money to fund this.”
The county has already voted to implement the program but hasn’t committed to any contribution percentage.
Holmes said the county could be looking at close to a 3% increase in health care costs in the next year, so that should be considered as well.
“I don’t think we’ll be passing along that increase to employees, so that’s going to be an additional benefit to them, so let’s keep that in mind,” he said.
Seyb, who’s advocated for the 457 plan, said there seems to be a misconception that it’s a benefit to employees that hurts the taxpayer.
“It’s strictly for the benefit of the employee and we’re framing it wrong. It’s giving us one more thing to negotiate,” he said.
He did quick math on a $10 increase to the fund per month per employee costing the county $27,000. He said that money, which is invested and works for the employee in that account, could be used as a mechanism to help keep percentage increases down, ultimately saving taxpayer dollars overall.
Braden said competition for attorneys in the Lee County Attorney’s office is heavy and, because the assistant attorney is tied to his salary, he would like the county to do what they can to help retain that talent.
The board also recognized that Harter's salary is below comparable other counties and recommended a correction there, as well.
"The whole time we're talking about all these positions, we're not talking about 'we must get everyone to that 22nd ranking'. We know we can't do that, but we want to move in that direction," Knisley said.
Hull didn't have a recommendation for a pay increase, but said he, along with Harter, are hearing from other counties who can't hire their position locally.
Because the workshop was discussion only, no action was taken on any of salaries. However, Budget Director Cindy Renstrom said she would punch in some of the numbers discussed to get the board a more fine-tuned budget outlook.
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