Lyon County Commissioners are near the end of their budget appropriation request process and once that concludes, “the hard work begins.”
Commission Chair Ken Duft noted as much during an interview with KVOE News following the commission’s latest study session, where it received the following budget requests:
*Kansas Legal Services: $18,000 up from $17,500
*Heltinger Developmental Services: $37,000 flat from the prior year
*Lyon County Conservation District: $40,000 up from $35,000
*Newman Regional Health: $750,000 up from $650,000
*Lyon County Sheriff’s Office: $3.9 million, up from $3.8 million
*Lyon County Jail: $3.933 million, up slightly from $3.909
*Lyon County Emergency Management: $228,893, up from $222,905.
While there were increases in the majority of asks both this week and last, Duft says those are largely related to 2 percent or less cost-of-living increases, a request that commissioners stated would be the exception to their directive to keep requests flat or lower than the prior year. Looking at the list of requests thus far, Duft says the commission is happy with how agencies have managed to follow that directive thus far.
That said, Duft, like commissioners Doug Peck and Chris Bartel earlier in the process, stated this is going to be a “tough year” when it comes to developing the budget, largely due to the ever-rising impact of inflation.
Duft’s comments come with two more appropriation requests scheduled on Thursday, the final two scheduled requests on the commission’s calendar, according to Duft, after which time he says the real “hard work” will begin, noting the amount of time and consideration that goes into the final budget’s development.
Duft noted that commissioners have to put everything into “perspective” to assess what the most pressing needs are when it comes to the allocation portion of the budget, something he notes becomes increasingly difficult each year as the answers to the most pressing questions are ever-changing.
Duft says in a “dream world,” the county would have “lots of money and not have to worry” about where to cut expenses or allocations; however, this is not a dream situation. Duft would add that additional funding sources would help to alleviate much of the stress of the process and that is one avenue he has been looking into for the past several months.
Duft noted that a project he has been working on is trying to find access to funds through the State Alcohol and Tobacco fund, which he says has not been disbursed to any counties in over 20 years.
Lyon County Commissioners are set to reconvene for their regular action meeting Thursday at 9 am.
