MARSHALL — Lyon County Commissioners will be taking a look at where to make budget cuts, after being faced with an unusually high levy increase for 2026. At Tuesday night’s “Truth in Taxation” meeting, commissioners said they would hold a meeting Dec. 23 for the purposes of discussing cuts and adopting a budget and levy.

“I’ll say, this is my ninth year on the board, and this has been the hardest one to work with so far,” said Commissioner Gary Crowley

At the “Truth in Taxation” meeting, Lyon County Administrator Loren Stomberg went over the proposed county budget and levy for next year. Earlier this fall, commissioners approved a preliminary levy increase of 9.9% for 2026. The final levy adopted by the county can be lower than the preliminary levy, but not higher.

“I am not used to a 9.9% increase,” Stomberg said. Historically, county levy increases have been much lower. “Overall, I think it’s going to take some major changes in the economy for us to get back to that. But I think we can get this thing settled down.”

A few members of the public attended the meeting, but only one person made comments. A Lyon County property owner said her property taxes for one parcel of agricultural land were going up 38.1%, while taxes for other parcels were going up 27% and 24.1%.

“I don’t think the general public would be opposed to seeing a cutback in some of the (county) services in order to save some money,” she told county commissioners.

Stomberg gave an overview of the proposed preliminary levy and budget. “The board approved a preliminary levy of $18,574,706. That’s a $1,678,000 increase over last year, or 9.9%,” Stomberg said.

“Going into this budget cycle for 2026, it’s been a bit challenging,” Stomberg said. He said there were a few different factors driving the proposed levy increase, with one of the biggest being increased health insurance costs.

“We’ve been doing very good for the last 10 years, since we’ve been self-insured,” Stomberg said. “However, things have changed as our workforce continues to mature . . . We’ve been hit with a lot of claims in that $50,000 to $60,000 range, that’s really taken down our health insurance fund balance.” Increased health costs were another factor that went along with insurance, he said.

Stomberg said overall about $515,000, or about one-third of the proposed preliminary levy increase, was wage increases.

“Another factor that’s driving this is our Health and Human Services are up 8%,” Stomberg said. Lyon County is part of a six-county joint powers group for Health and Human Services, so cost increases there are not something the county has control over, he said.

“I do think that Human Services is going to be one of those departments that you’re going to see consistently large increases,” Stomberg said. “The reason I say that is a lot of their funding is funneled down through the federal government, which as we know is doing cuts, and then also our state government has been doing some things that are adding programs.”

Stomberg said another hurdle for the county budget was that in 2025, the county took $324,000 out of cash reserves to buy down a levy increase.

“It was a good idea at the time. In hindsight, it makes things a little bit more difficult,” Stomberg said. “If we had that out of there, we would only be looking for half a million dollars in cuts.”

Other factors affecting the county budget included a decrease in income from interest, a $36,000 cut in state aid funding, and increases in property insurance costs, Stomberg said.

“When we’re looking at the 2026 budget, we also have to keep an eye out for what’s going to happen in 2027,” Stomberg said. “We could still have some nasty increases in 2027, and we’re running out of things to do to reduce that, and then our back is up against the wall. So what we’re trying to do is smooth this out,” he said of potential budget and levy increases.

Stomberg said possible areas where commissioners could look at making budget reductions included appropriations and staffing levels. However, he cautioned commissioners about reducing county staffing levels too much. “The county has always been very conservative as far as how we staff. We’re not overstaffed,” he said. In some cases county staff were helping pick up slack left by vacancies or job turnover, he said.

“I would be highly in favor of seeing our county commissioners cut some funding, cut some expenses somewhere,” said the property owner who commented at the meeting.

“I see what you’re saying, but the thing is about services, who do you cut?” said Commissioner Gary Crowley.

“We elect you as commissioners to make those decisions,” the property owner said.

During the audience comment period, commissioners were also asked whether the Marshall Area YMCA received county tax dollars. The audience member said earlier this fall, she saw a sign posted at the Y for a meeting about “keeping neighbors and families safe from ICE.”

“That was very distressing,” and could put local law enforcement at risk, she said.

Counties can only appropriate funds to nonprofits for certain purposes, Stomberg said. “We can appropriate funds to arts and culture, and economic development,” he said. “We can’t give money to the YMCA.”

At the close of the “Truth in Taxation” meeting, commissioners decided to hold a dedicated budget meeting to look at making cuts, and then set a levy. The meeting was set for 9 a.m. on Dec. 23.