MARSHALL — After weeks of discussion about the possibility of a double-digit levy increase in Lyon County in 2026, County Commissioners approved a 9.9% preliminary levy increase on Tuesday.

The 9.9% increase was higher than commissioners wanted. But commissioners said they planned to keep working on lowering the levy before they have to finalize it at the end of the year.

“It’s still too high, but at least we’ve got some wiggle room,” said Commissioner Rick Anderson.

The preliminary levy can still be lowered before commissioners act on setting a final 2026 county budget and levy. A final levy can be lower, but not higher, than the preliminary levy.

At Tuesday’s county board meeting, Lyon County Administrator Loren Stomberg presented commissioners with a preliminary levy increase of 9.9% from 2025. In a budget proposal included in the commissioner agenda packet for Tuesday, the preliminary levy increase worked out to a total net levy increase of about $1.67 million.

“Not a lot has changed on the levy from the last time we visited,” Stomberg told commissioners. “No matter how they dice it,” the county was facing some increased costs and reduced revenue, he said.

Stomberg said it was likely that the county would lose some lease revenue from the Department of Employment and Economic Development offices in Marshall next year. DEED’s lease for office space in the county government center will be up next summer, and DEED was looking at smaller offices, he said.

“The deal isn’t sealed on that, but the writing is on the wall,” Stomberg said. In addition to possibly losing some of the lease revenue from DEED, he said, “We lost some County Program Aid, to the tune of about $40,000.”

Stomberg said the county was also facing increased insurance costs in 2026.

“What I’m suggesting to the board is to, as a placeholder, use $850,000 out of reserves,” Stomberg said. “I think there’s some different things we can do to get the reserve dollars out of there. But by doing that, we come in at a 9.9% (levy increase).”

Stomberg said one possible option for the board was about $20.26 million the county had in debt service. “We have cash available to call that debt in. And so that’s something that the board can consider between now and December when you finalize the budget.”

“I think at 9.9% we’ve got our bases covered. We can get that $850,000 out of there when all is said and done. It may take some difficult decisions going forward,” he said.

Stomberg said it was too early for the county to finalize its 2026 budget, because there were still unknowns going into October.

“If the state has to redo their budget due to cost shifts from the feds, that could negatively affect us,” he said. With the $850,000 in reserves, Stomberg said he thought there were “still a few other areas that we can look at for reducing costs.”

Commissioner Todd Draper made the motion to set the preliminary levy increase at 9.9%, “With the intention of trying to get it lower.”

Commissioners said that over the past 15 years, they had tried to keep levy increases as low as possible.