Adair County supervisors crunching the numbers during budget season

The Adair County supervisors are in the thick of budgeting season and were due to start crunching numbers this week in the race to create and pass a balanced budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

Each year, the supervisors bring in outside entities that they help fund. They also hear from county department heads. This is all to field budget requests from these groups and departments. Then, the supervisors plug the numbers in and start working their magic.

As of Monday, Jan. 13, all outside entities had spoken with the board of supervisors. These include DHS, Southern Iowa Trolley, MATURA Action Corporation, Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D), Ag Extension, Adair County Tourism, Adair County Environmental Health, Adair County Home Care, Adair County libraries, Adair County Historical Society, Midwest Partnership Economic Development, the Adair County Fair Board and Southern Iowa Council of Governments.

County Engineer Nick Kauffman, Conservation Director Dominic Johnson and Veterans Affairs met with the board Jan. 13. On Jan. 17, courthouse custodian Scott Roberts, County Treasurer Brenda Wallace and Auditor Mandy Berg spoke with the supervisors regarding funding for the next year. Monday, Jan. 20, Sheriff Jeff Vandewater, Attorney Melissa Larson, Recorder Kelly Mitchell and Berg were schedule to share additional reports and requests.

“Monday [was] our last day of county departments coming in,” said Berg.

There are trends each year in budget requests that come in.

“The trend this year is that most people are coming in with similar requests [from previous years]. With departments, salaries and insurance will go up, but those have really been the only changes departments are bringing in,” she said. Right now, the supervisors are asking all departments to pencil in a 5% wage increase, which is the main number the compensation board brought forth.

“The ones that have come in with increases have been slight increases,” Berg said of the requests.

The county must hold two public hearings before filing their budget, providing public notice of the hearings at least 10 days but no more than 20 days in advance. The budget must be filed for the upcoming fiscal year by April 30 with written protests to the budget due by April 10. Budget amendments must be completed by May 31. Property tax rates have to be delivered by the Department of Management to county auditors by June 15. The tax list must be to the county treasurer from the county auditor by June 30.