After considerable give and take in recent weeks, Seward County Commission Chair Misty Ahmic and County Clerk Brandy Johnson got the county’s property tax request for 2026-2027 down to $10.5 million on Sept. 4.
Johnson said tweaking the amount placed in the county’s reserve was among the cuts that helped them meet the board of commissioners’ goal of minimizing the county’s tax asking. It also means they avoid having to present their budget at a “pink postcard hearing” for exceeding a Unicameral-set limit on growth.
The $10.5 million property tax revenue request is $211,193 more than last year, which Johnson said could still lower the county’s levy. But it excludes the approximately $220,000 the county will seek as a public safety exception to the levy caps to pay for the last two-thirds of the new camera security system needed at the Seward County Detention Center.
The county’s overall budget – funded by property tax, fees, state, federal and grant-funded operations – totals around $45 million.
Commissioners have been meeting with county department leaders to snip dollars off their budgets wherever possible to keep the property tax revenue request below the allowed growth targets set by state legislators.
Elected and appointed department leaders were asked to present budgets as close to their 2024-2025 budgets as possible plus the scheduled 4% salary and salary-related increases approved for all county employees.
The commissioners’ Sept. 1 budget sessions included a brief meeting with County Assessor Marilyn Hladky and continued conversation with Sheriff Mike Vance.
Vance’s budget includes expenses previously funded by the federal forfeiture program in which the Seward County Drug Interdiction Task Force is involved, but has been placed on a “do not spend” status, meaning they have not received disbursements from the forfeiture funds they have submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice in recent months.
Those funds previously provided salaries for school resource officers, overtime pay for task force deputies, vehicles and equipment.
Ahmic acknowledged the tension in the meeting when discussion centered on the drug interdiction team’s expenses and the department’s “do not spend” status for funds allocated by the Department of Justice.
“I realize there is some history here and there is tension and everything else, but I want to remind everybody that we do not do this job for the money,” she said.
She noted that under the guidelines of the Departments of Justice and Treasury, because the drug interdiction team’s salaries were paid from the general fund last year, they now cannot be included in future allocations of forfeiture reimbursement payments the county may receive after the do not spend order is lifted.
“Today we are asking that the taxpayers pay for 100% of the cost of the sheriff’s office,” Ahmic said.
Vance cited the benefits the drug interdiction program has brought to the department over the past eight years, and that the costs of vehicles, overtime pay, utilities and fuel could be covered by forfeiture funds in the future.
“They are just deputies doing different jobs. They are not always doing interdiction but that is their main job,” he said.
Commissioner Raegan Hain said the cost of the drug interdiction program also includes the building that was purchased near the Milford interchange, insurance costs, utilities, internet and cameras, not just personnel.
Commissioner Darrell Zabrocki asked if the interdiction program is necessary for the department to meet the responsibilities that state statutes give to sheriff’s departments.
“I question the relevance,” Zabrocki said. “I still look at whether or not that is an essential service when it is putting a strain on what we are trying to do.”
Vance disputed that.
“To say that it is not part of our job to take those drugs off the interstate, I disagree,” he said.
Hain said the sheriff’s office budget was $1.79 million in 2023-2024, $1.70 million in 2024-2025 and $1.91 million in 2025-2026. The sheriff’s initial request for 2026-2027 was $2.3 million.
With the county’s allowable growth capped at $542,000, the sheriff’s request would comprise most of that increase, Hain said.
Ahmic said there are many reasons why the budget is tight this year, but she rejected the idea of the sheriff’s office employees not getting the same increases as other county employees.
“I want people who want to be here and want to serve the public to be here,” she said. “To not pay them their wages, we lose people.”
She has repeatedly told Vance and others in the budget process she does not want to see anyone lose their jobs.
She reminded the group that the county receives only 20% of the county’s property tax funds and the board is trying to “move the needle where we can” to keep taxes down for county residents.
“They come in and say ‘you are taxing us out of our houses,’” Ahmic said.
But Vance said not funding his department limits the services taxpayers receive.
“You do not want to come out and tell me to cut personnel, but that is what you are telling me to do,” Vance said.
Zabrocki said the task force has been successful in the past.
“But we do not have that money anymore. What we could do two years ago we cannot do now,” he said. “It is not that anyone is punishing anybody. You are the elected official. You are going to have to determine what is essential.”
Commissioner Scott Pekarek said the county’s budget constraints can make it difficult to compete with larger departments for staff.
“We cannot have nice things because we just do not have the funding,” he said.
“I know you think we are targeting you and I am sorry you feel that way.”
As the county budget now stands, the sheriff’s office has a budget of $2,888,418 and the Seward County Detention Center has another $2,082,544. The 911 center has a budget of $1,770,699, of which the county pays 63%, or about $634,000. The remainder of the 911 budget is supplied by the county’s interlocal agreement partners Seward (33%) and Milford (4%).
