Lyon County commissioners began preliminary budget talks for 2026 at Tuesday’s regular meeting, and are considering a possible 10% increase in the next levy.
That steep of a levy bump hasn’t been discussed in many years; the highest increase in the last two decades was 6.46% in 2016 — that was a one-time adjustment to the debt levy when the court addition at the Lyon County Government Center was built.
Lyon County Administrator Loren Stomberg said budget talks are purely speculation right now. He is still waiting for figures from a number of areas such as Health and Human Services, insurance and governmental aids to provide a more clear picture on what next’s year’s budget will look like.
“I think we’re going to be right at double-digits,” Stomberg said. “That’s assuming a good scenario. I think we can get that down, but to do that will involve some difficult decisions. We can’t have everything and keep the budget low. My intent is to provide different scenarios to pare it down.”
One issue at hand that could affect the County’s numbers is the future of the DEED office space in the government center. DEED currently rents about 7,000 square feet on te third floor, but since the full DEED staff hasn’t returned since the pandemic, they are asking for a reduction in space.
“We’re looking at different options, talked with Human Services to see if they could utilize some of the space, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to be a viable option,” said Stomberg. “My fear is that at the end of their lease (June 2026), they will be gone — that would be a $100,000 loss in rental income. It’s pretty significant.”
Commissioner Rick Anderson said the County is not alone in having to hit up taxpayers at a higher level to handle future financial issues.
“The Marshall School District wants a $2 million referendum with an inflation clause built into it — we’re not the only ones who are going to be asking taxpayers for a lot of money,” Anderson said. “There will be some tough cuts — we’re going to have to look at that.”
To save money, Anderson floated the idea of not applying for grants that require a County match because “that’s going to pull money from somewhere,” he said.
Stomberg added that the upcoming federal budget could affect what counties do as well, as those decisions could make the State re-do its budget and that, in turn, would play a role in what the County does.
“They’re going to share the pain with counties,” Stomberg said. “It’s not necessarily the day-to-day operating that’s killing us, it’s these big swings in funding. I don’t like the fact that we have to give Human Services a larger share of the pie when we have the rest of the core services that we have to provide for.”
Commissioner Paul Graupmann said it’s important for Lyon County residents to know that the County itself isn’t the source of the issue.
“People are going to be upset about this, and rightly so … but it’s coming from the State,” he said.
“I think people understand — they’re hearing it on the news, they know what’s going on with the federal government, they know what’s going on in the state government,” Lyon County Chair Gary Crowley said.
Crowley said most people understand that keeping up a high standard of County core services comes at a price.
“They like good roads to drive on, they like their snow plowed and their roads graded,” he said.
Anderson countered by saying most people are just as concerned about the County being respectful of the citizen’s dollars and that the County needs to do its best to keep the levy as low as it can.
