The Carroll County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to meet Thursday morning for what is expected to be the final work session on the Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 budget. In preparation for that meeting, the supervisors reviewed the county’s current fund balances through January 2025 at this morning’s (Tuesday) meeting to determine the county’s overall fiscal health. Despite budget-growth constraints placed on counties and cities by the Iowa Legislature in 2023, Auditor Kourtney Payer says the county has strong fund balances.
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Across the 18 tracked funds, the county currently has a nearly $2.3 million higher total balance at $14.687 million compared to January 2024. Payer presented a salary worksheet for the supervisors at Tuesday’s meeting, which outlined current staff pay levels and showed scenarios ranging from a 2.5 percent increase to as high as 15 percent for some positions. District 4 Supervisor Stephanie Hausman says it is critical for staff to understand that base pay makes up only a part of the county’s overall cost per employee.
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District 3 Supervisor Gene Meiners echoes that sentiment.
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Board Chair Scott Johnson emphasizes that government generally isn’t a revenue-generating entity, so nearly 100 percent of their funding comes through taxation.
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Hausman calls some of the requested pay increases “absurd.”
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The Carroll County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to convene at 10 a.m. at the courthouse on Thursday for the final departmental budget reviews and set the FY26 pay increases for non-union staff and elected officials. Once those figures are determined, the supervisors can calculate the proposed FY26 property tax levy rates.