MARSHALL — Trying to figure out a preliminary levy and budget for 2026 continues to pose challenges for Lyon County, County Administrator Loren Stomberg said Tuesday.

Stomberg asked county commissioners for more time before presenting a levy proposal.

“I don’t have a lot of the details to go through with the budget items yet. But just in broad strokes, if the board were to adopt a levy today that would cover all of the requests that we’ve had for the budget, we would be at a 14.7% (levy) increase,” Stomberg said.

He said a “double-digit” levy increase would be unprecedented, at least for years Stomberg has been with the county.

“We have not gone into double digits, period. I’m uncomfortable with that myself,” Stomberg said.

Commissioners usually set a preliminary county levy by the end of September. The final levy can be lower, but not higher, than the preliminary levy amount.

Rising health insurance costs were one of the biggest driving factors behind the possible levy increase, he said. Lyon County’s health insurance fund is self-funded, he said.

“Our health insurance fund has been pretty healthy for the last several years. However, we’re going through a cycle where our claims are costing us more than our ability to fund it, and so our balance is decreasing,” Stomberg said.

Stomberg said insurance broker Marsh McLennan was recommending funding the county’s health insurance at about $2.5 million.

“We’re currently self-funding at about $1,750,000, so there’s a big swing there,” he said. “I’m not sure that we need the full $2.5 million, but that’s what the actuaries are telling us that our expected claims are going to be next year.”

Stomberg said he did see some potential paths to reduce the preliminary levy increase down to “somewhere in the 9% area.” But it wouldn’t be easy.

“Some things are relatively easy, but have their own unintended consequences. Other cuts that would be made … pretty much every commissioner will see something in there that we’re looking at cutting that they don’t want to cut,” he said.

Stomberg asked for another two weeks to get a levy proposal completed.

“I’ll come with the details at the next (commissioner) meeting,” he said.

The county board had also scheduled a work session on Sept. 19 to discuss the preliminary budget and levy.

“I think we’ll just schedule that as a regular board meeting, so if the board does want to finalize the levy, they can do so at that meeting without having to call a special one,” he said.

“I do think we got some ideas where we can bring that (levy) under, in single digits,” said Commissioner Gary Crowley.

“I think that’s our goal at this point. I think we’ll get there,” he said.