MARSHALL — As Lyon County government goes into its budget planning season, it will be faced with some tough decisions, County Administrator Loren Stomberg said this week.

Stomberg said factors like Human Services costs being shifted down from the state level to counties could have a big impact on potential budget and levy increases.

“I think we’re going to be right at double digits, and that’s assuming a good scenario. That’s not something that this county has done in the last 20 years,” Stomberg told county commissioners Tuesday.

Stomberg said he intended to bring some different possible options back to commissioners at future meetings.

“I think we can get that down. To do that, though, there is going to be some difficult decisions,” he said.

The county needs to set a preliminary levy and budget in September.

At Tuesday’s county board meeting, Stomberg said he was still waiting to hear more details about what the Minnesota state budget meant for county funding.

“At this time I haven’t had a breakdown of what’s happened at the Legislature yet,” he said. But one big concern would be more state Human Services costs being passed down to the county level.

Commissioner Rick Anderson said that, in talking with Southwest Health and Human Services, he heard “The amount of stuff that’s really getting passed down, that you don’t really read about, might be more than anticipated.”

“I’m planning, for budgeting purposes, on a 10% increase in Human Services. I haven’t heard where they’re at. I’m assuming they probably don’t know at this point yet either,” Stomberg said.

Stomberg said he was also waiting for details like the final certification from the state on the amount of County Program Aid and other forms of state aid Lyon County receives. Stomberg said he also thought the county might face a “substantial increase” in property insurance costs, and possibly a big loss in rental income from part of the County Government Center building.

Stomberg said the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development office in Marshall has been asking for a smaller space than the 7,000 square-foot offices they currently rent.

“My fear is that they will, at the end of their lease at the end of June next year, that they may be gone. And that would be a $100,000 loss in rental income, which is pretty significant,” Stomberg said.

“Counties are going to have to start looking at what are our core services to provide,” and where they can possibly make cuts, Anderson said.

For example, he said, “There are a lot of JPAs that we do that we don’t have to do.”

Plus, Anderson said, “We’re not the only ones that are going to be asking taxpayers for a lot of money.” Lyon County taxpayers were facing possible levy increases from other local governments. The Marshall Public School District was also calling for a $2 million operating referendum, he said.

“People are gonna be upset about this and not like it, and rightly so. But hopefully they realize that the source of the issues isn’t the county, it comes from the state,” said Commissioner Paul Graupmann.

Anderson said Lyon County has been through difficult situations with funding before, including a stretch of several years after 2009 when county salary levels were frozen.

“And I’m not saying that’s the way we want to go,” he said. “But I think we have to be very careful what we do.”