LEE COUNTY – Lee County Supervisors gave a cautious warning to department heads at their workshop Tuesday morning following the supervisors' regular board meeting.
Supervisors stuck around following a quick meeting to hear department updates and then Supervisor Garry Seyb gave caution to those in attendance to keep in mind no spending increases for the next fiscal year.
Budgeting for the 2026-27 fiscal year, which begins on July 1, 2026, will start to take shape next month with department budget hearings set for the first week of the new year.
“My assumption is that you guys have 60 days from today, basically, to start working and looking at your budgets,” Seyb said.
He said everyone will be dealing with inflation and, if they can hold onto status quo, that would essentially be cutting their budgets. If there are things that have to be done, he said those are the things that will need hashed out.
“I don’t know if everyone on the board recognizes that, but we’ve kind of built that in to handle some of that, not all of it, but that is our county emergency reserve fund, which takes four of five votes of the entire board,” he said.
Seyb said the county has committed to cutting 56 cents per year and he doesn’t know where the county will come out again this year.
“My guidance to everyone with your budget this year is to keep it status quo with what you had this last year,” he said. “And then kind of use that as a guideline and work on staying status quo and I’ll just leave it at that.”
Budget Director Cindy Renstrom said she will send out prior budgets for department heads to start working on next year’s, after the November month is cleaned up.
Seyb said they will make adjustments where they have to, but if there are things they just can’t do within the budget, those are the things staff should be bringing to the budget hearings.
Board Vice Chair Ginger Knisley said they should also be looking hard for savings.
“It’s tight,” she said.
Seyb said the county had reduced the levy 58 cents per $1,000 over the past two years. He said this year he wants to focus on a “status quo” budget and then go from there.
Supervisor Chuck Holmes said he was surprised to hear Seyb say “status quo” rather than looking for direct cuts.
“I’m surprised to hear you say the status quo rather than telling the departments to reduce their budget by that 58 cents,” Holmes said. “I’m surprised to hear you say that.”
Knisley said the county had reached critical mass this year.
“We don’t know that we’re going to be able to make those bizarre changes in spreadsheets to make the 58 cents happen anyways. We reached critical mass this year,” she said.
Seyb said he doesn’t know what the state will do and continuing to reduce the levy may pinch the county to keep going.
“Last year was a struggle to get the 58 cents by playing, and I don’t want to say a shell game, but that’s what it is,” he said, referencing the county moving funds between the general fund and the supplemental fund within state guidelines.
Knisley said State Reps. Matt Rinker and Blaine Watkins said Monday night that they expect property taxes to be the biggest discussion during the next legislative session.
“They both gave an indication that they felt something was going to happen with it,” she said.
She said extra discussions and brain storming in the coming months is welcome, but in January, the time gets a little tight.
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