The 2026-27 Lyon County budget has yet to be finalized; however, the county will not exceed the revenue neutral rate over the course of the fiscal year.
County commissioners assured this during their regular action meeting Thursday morning when they voted unanimously not to exceed the RNR. Originally, plans were to exceed the rate; however, Commission Chairman Ken Duft said recent comments from constituents led them to reverse course.
To not exceed revenue neutral, commissioners made a slight alteration to the budget, choosing to reduce an allocation to Newman Regional Health by $150,000, according to County Controller Dan Williams, a decision agreed upon by both parties, and will also be pulling a portion of the budget, just under $900,000, from sales tax dollars, according to Commissioner Chris Bartel.
The budget total comes to roughly $40 million and will see the mill levy rate decrease by less than a mill from 2025. Traditionally, commissioners vote on both the budget authorization and the RNR in the same meeting after a pair of public hearings.
While the budget still needs to be published and authorized, commissioners’ action Thursday morning means no public hearing or additional action will be needed on the RNR matter. According to Williams, the budget is set to be published September 18th and finalized by October 1.
In other matters, Thursday, commissioners approved the year-end reports for 2026 from Community Corrections. Commissioners also approved the purchase of more than $44,000 in casing pipe from Gateway Steel and Pipe Supply at the request of County Engineer Wayne Scritchfield.
One executive session was also held for confidential third-party data exchange. County commissioners will reconvene for their regular action meeting next Thursday at 9 am inside the County Courthouse Commission Chambers.
