Misty Ahmic and the Seward County Board of Commissioners are looking for places in the county’s budget that could be trimmed by $4 million or so.
That is no small feat when the county’s budget for property tax support was $10,923,481 for the fiscal year that ended June 30.
But as they budget for the fiscal year that began July 1, county department heads brought forward needs and potential plans that would require around $14 million in the budget.
The commissioners spent about four hours July 28 talking with different departments about their proposals, starting with the department of roads. Additional meetings will follow.
The commissioners recently agreed they would utilize a public safety exception in the state’s budget limits to increase their spending on new security equipment at the Seward County Justice Center, which includes the detention center.
But the budget conversations are focused on defining needs and identifying potential cuts to comply with state lids.
“We need to do that because we have limits and that is a significant burden,” Ahmic told Seward County Highway Superintendent Jon Regnier in that first session.
For road work, Regnier was proposing funding for gravel, rock and other supplies for maintenance and improvements scheduled. They settled on $1,325,000, which is close to their expenditures in the last fiscal year. Ahmic said only $1 million of that would be in the department’s budget and if more is needed, up to $325,000 could be taken from the county’s Inheritance Fund.
That fund is generated by inheritance tax payments and used by the county for unanticipated expenses and maintenance projects at the courthouse.
She noted that the past year required significant road work due to weather.
“If next year it is still $1.3 million, then we should put it back in the budget,” Ahmic said.
The county is factoring in an anticipated 15 percent increase in health insurance, 5 percent increase in utility costs, a county-wide salary package that will increase up to 4 percent as well as the related workers compensation and unemployment expenses and, like everyone else, supply and material costs that are also increasing.
Regnier noted the cost of steel directly impacts his department’s purchasing power for things like grader blades, which require periodic replacement. Fuel costs are also a large component of their plans.
Levies based on valuations
In the past three years, the commissioners have been able to lower their countywide levy each year. The last two years they trimmed 3 cents off the levy by eliminating expenses.
For 2025-26, the levy is 26.1794 cents per $100 tax valuation. A Seward County home valued at $100,000 last year was taxed about $262 for the county’s needs, plus a levy for schools, cities and other taxing entities where a property is located.
“There is always going to be an increase because of things like salary increases,” Ahmic said.
Cities, villages, school districts, Seward Municipal Airport and other taxing entities in Seward County are going through similar processes as they finalize their budgets to submit to the state by Oct. 1. Some have budgets significantly larger than the county’s and some are much smaller.
The state requires approval of the fiscal year budget a few months behind the actual start of the fiscal year.
“We will have more information later,” Ahmic said.
Once the county has all the valuations set for the tax year, the county and other entities will have an idea of where their levies may land. A tax request for $10.9 million, like last year’s county request, works out differently when the county’s valuation increases and the burden is spread across the property owners.
Seward County’s valuation rose from $3,784,863,148 in 2024-25 to $4,172,554,801 in 2025-26, an increase of more than $387.6 million.
Seward County Assessor Marilyn Hladky said the board of equalization has now completed 17 protest hearings on property valuations and is awaiting state notification of the valuations placed on public utilities, railroads, communications companies and the like. The state calculates and equalizes those valuations and shares them with counties by mid-August..
This year’s valuation is in the process of being calculated with the Seward County Assessor and board of equalization (which is also the board of commissioners) having completed valuation protest hearings with property owners recently.
Once that is added, the certified school district valuations are submitted to the state for the calculation of state aid via the Tax Equity and Educational Opportunities Support Act (TEEOSA).
In the latter part of August, Hladky will have finalized valuations for all political subdivisions.
Asked what taxpayers can do during budget season, Ahmic said she encourages people to get involved.
“It is important as always to be involved, to participate and to try to learn more about the budgets,” she said.
County, city, village, school and other entities will be conducting public budget hearings in August and September. The Seward County Commissioners recently scheduled the state-mandated joint public budget hearing for the county, cities, villages and other taxing entities for 6:30 p.m. Sept. 21.
