Lyon County Commissioners may be right near the finish line when it comes to the 2026-27 budget.
Following a near two-hour study session Wednesday morning, commissioners directed Lyon County Controller Dan Williams to put the current budget numbers into a state spreadsheet and have those numbers ready to present to commissioners for consideration and potential approval for publication within the next week.
According to Williams, the budget, in its current form, comes to just over $40 million with a mill levy rate of 56.406, which is a 0.042 percent decrease from the previous year. Williams says the commission, like last year, has cut a considerable amount from the budget, with commissioners and Williams noting Wednesday that leadership cut as much as they could without affecting any essential services.
The need for cuts comes as a result of two main causes which KVOE has noted since the onset of the budget season this year: inflation and insurance. On the inflation side, commissioners asked that county department heads keep their budget requests flat with the exception of two percent cost of living increases, which they all reportedly managed to do.
Commissioners also asked all outside agencies to keep their appropriation requests as flat as possible, which Williams says they also managed to do for the most part, but noted the commission still had to make “some tough decisions” on the total in allocations.
As for insurance:
With this in mind, Williams says the county will likely “go out to bid” to find better coverage options that can save employees some money or at least minimize any rise in costs or impact.
Wednesday’s study session comes just ahead of the commission’s regular action meeting Thursday which will begin at 9 am inside the Lyon County Courthouse Commission Chambers. We have the full agenda for that meeting online under the news page at KVOE.com.
