Budget season winds down in Washington County

WASHINGTON — Washington’s city council and school district have approved their budgets for the coming fiscal year, with the county’s board of supervisors set to vote on its finances April 29.

Taxpayers to all three local governments complained of high levy rates during public hearings and work sessions on the numbers, saying they worried about their ability to afford any increased ask from their local governments.

“I understand that costs increase over time, but my retirement income hasn’t doubled,” said Michael O'Leary, a resident of rural Riverside, at a Board of Supervisors meeting April 8. “I need something I can handle in my retirement, otherwise, I need to look at other options … I’ve been in Washington County 17 years, I really enjoy my neighbors and my area around me, but it’s getting more and more difficult to afford what I’ve got.”

Such complaints had little success: none of the three local governments have reduced their levy plans in response to public comments in the weeks ahead of budget votes, although Washington County did make some unrelated amendments that slightly lowered its projected expenses.

Local governments have struggled to make marginal reductions in tax rates, or have argued their hands are tied by a lack of state funding and high demand for services. Still, some locals say they’re frustrated with the payments they must make every year.

“The taxpayers have a limit to what we as a group can fund,” said Washington County resident George Moore at one Board of Supervisors public hearing. “I wish we could just not raise the ask. The percentages, all the rates and that stuff, I don’t care. When the bill comes in the mail and you open up that envelope, that bill has gone up almost every year, and that’s an increase.”

Municipal accounts in decent shape

The city of Washington will see a slightly reduced property tax levy in the coming fiscal year, going from a total of $16.14 per thousand dollars of valuation to $16.07, after council members passed their annual budget at a meeting on April 15.

City administrator Joe Gaa said FY 25 was “not a bad budget year for us,” but said he worried about the process at the end of FY 26, as state lawmakers hope to pass bills limiting local governments’ budget growth, and limiting changes in property tax evaluations from year to year.

“We’re not in horrible shape, but in the future, as this happens, I don’t think we’ll have such an easy time balancing (the budget) next time,” Gaa said. “Costs have not gone down, so if we’re locked in on our levies, if we’re locked in on our valuations, we will have to make some cuts.”

In total, the city expects to reduce its expenditures from about $18.179 million in FY 2025 to about $16.675 million in 26, according to the budget proposal published as a public notice.

School officials raise taxes, citing low state funding

The Washington Community School District will raise its property tax levy in the coming fiscal year from just over $16.01 per thousand dollars of valuation to slightly above $16.25. School board members voted in favor of the change at a meeting April 9. The change will raise the district’s property tax revenue from roughly $8.953 million to $9.277 million, even as total resources from all revenue streams sinks from about $58.932 million to $52.438 million.

Superintendent Willie Stone said he was frustrated with the growing legislative consensus in Des Moines to set State Supplemental Aid at 2%, a move he said forced the district to raise local taxes to make ends meet.

“Let’s say they give us 3%, we can drop our tax rate by nine cents per thousand,” Stone said. “If you really want to know what can help us and help our taxpayers, properly funded SSA is something that can help not just our district, but every district in the state … I think it’s important people know that.”

Stone said there were some areas of the budget that were neither state-funded nor state-mandated, including a total of over $823,913 in expenditures on dropout prevention, special ed initiatives and open-enrollment offsetting expenses.

While funding those programs is not legally required, the superintendent said students would suffer if schools cut them.

“I don’t think we have an option, we have to have (these) for our kids to be better,” Stone said. “This is what we can do differently, but it won’t be great for our kids.”

In an interview in March, school board President Mike Liska said officials had considered “every angle” in an effort to minimize the schools’ tax asking.

“We’re just really hand-tied in what we can do,” he said. “There’s not much we can do this coming year … and looking at the counties around us, pretty much everyone’s going up.”

County hearing comes next week

The Washington County Board of Supervisors will vote on their proposed budget at a meeting on April 29, after a public hearing earlier in April and a steady stream of work sessions over the last few months.

The county’s proposed levy per $1,000 of valuation in FY 26 is $9.353 for urban areas and $11.249 for rural ones. That’s compared to $9.422 and $11.337, respectively, in the current fiscal year.

A public notice for the budget shows officials expect to bring in around $15.793 million in property taxes, compared to the current fiscal year’s $15.320 million, when adjusting for tax credits, while the total from all revenue sources drops from over $35 million to around $34.025 million. Overall expenditures, meanwhile, are set to drop to almost $35.4 million, compared to the current fiscal year’s total of over $39 million.

“The budget is one of the most conservative budgets I’ve put together,” County Budget Director Cyndie Sinn said at a work session April 21. “All the levies are down, the tax asking is down around 2.5%, I don’t know how we could have done much better than that.”

Many Washington County officials say they’re frustrated with state-level policies enacted in recent years and currently up for debate in Des Moines, which have limited local governments’ tax authority and how much their budgets can grow from one year to the next.

Several, including Sinn, worry they’ll have to cut services and funding streams as budget-trimming deadlines arrive next fiscal year.

“They think they know better than us at the local level, and it’s very challenging,” she said.

Officials hinted at potentially frozen staff salaries and cuts to library funding and secondary roads in FY27, citing language in current state tax reform proposals. While no such major shifts are included in the FY26 budget getting a vote on Tuesday, they are on the minds of many in local government.

“There’s some places that we may have to make cuts to,” Board of Supervisors Chair Richard Young said. “We’re going to have to make some cuts next year that are very unpopular with people, if we follow that law.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com