Floyd County sets budget public hearing for April 29

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

The Floyd County Board of Supervisors set the date for the final public hearing on the county’s fiscal year 2025-26 budget at the board’s meeting this week.

The supervisors set Tuesday, April 29, at 4:30 p.m. in the supervisors board room in the courthouse for the public hearing on the 2025-26 county budget.

That budget would collect a total of $8,902,622 in property taxes throughout the county in the new fiscal year that begins July 1. That’s up 1.44% from the current year.

Total revenue for the county in fiscal year 2025-26 is projected to be $20,856,158, which is up 8.1% from the current year. That includes money collected in TIF districts, money from the state and federal governments, charges for services and interest on money being held.

The county tax levy, charged per $1,000 of taxable valuation, will drop slightly for people who own property in cities in the county and for people who own property in rural areas.

All property owners will pay $6.20 per $1,000 of taxable valuation. That’s down 14 cents from the current year’s $6.34 per $1,000.

Rural property owners pay an additional amount, bringing their Floyd County property tax bill for the 2025-26 fiscal year to $9.66 per $1,000 of assessed taxable valuation. That’s down 18 cents from the current 2024-25 fiscal year’s levy of $9.84 per $1,000.

Rural property owners pay the additional amount to cover the cost of county services such as law enforcement protection and maintaining roads and bridges in rural areas. People who own property in cities pay for similar services through their city property taxes.

The supervisors spent much of the budget discussion this year planning spending, tax levy rates and shifting spending among different accounts to keep the general basic fund, general supplemental fund and rural services fund all with at least 25% projected carryover at the end of the new fiscal year on July 1, 2026, to go into the 2026-27 fiscal year.

Counties generally look for that 25% margin to allow them to pay expenses during the first couple months of the new fiscal year before the next round of property taxes start coming in.

In Floyd County’s case, all three of those funds is projected to be at least at a 25% carryover at the end of the next fiscal year, but the county’s fiscal year total beginning balance looks to be falling significantly.

At the beginning of the 2023-24 fiscal year, the beginning balance was $14.22 million. That increased to $15.19 million at the beginning of the current 2024-25 fiscal year. But it is expected to be at $11.38 million going into the new 2025-26 fiscal year, and to have fallen to $9.30 million by the end of the next fiscal year, going into 2026-27.

Also at the board meeting this week, the supervisors:

• Approved the annual purchase of crushed stone for resurfacing county gravel roads. The single bid received was from Bruening Rock Products of Decorah, for $15.829 per ton for 75,000 tons, for a total of $1,187,175 to purchase the rock and have it hauled and applied.

County Engineer Adam Miller said he reduced the order from the 100,000 tons that has been used for several years because the relative lack of snow has reduced the amount of plowing on county roads, leaving more of the existing rock on the road surface.

• Approved the annual county weed commissioner report on noxious weeds, requiring property owners to destroy weeds including Canada thistle, musk thistle, teasel, leafy spurge, annual sunflower, sour dock, palmer amaranth and wild mustard.

Supervisor Boyd Campbell suggested adding wild parsnip to the list, saying the weed is becoming a bigger and bigger problem, and the board directed the county weed commissioner, Tim Laube, who is also a superintendent in the county Secondary Roads Department, to look into that.

• Officially appointed the Floyd County Department of Public Health to take on the responsibility of managing county general assistance now that County Social Services, which had coordinated the service, is being disbanded.

Gail Arjes, administer of Floyd County Public Health, told the supervisors at the board’s regular weekly meeting last week that she was willing to take on the responsibility, and that her staff should be able to handle the extra work.

• Approved a new phone system for county offices at a cost of $1,916 per month ($22,992 per year) with a five-year contract with Marco of Mason City. The system includes $26,463.25 worth of equipment including almost 100 various model phones at a discounted price of zero dollars in return for the monthly contract.

• Spent about half an hour in a sometimes heated discussion with a few property owners and others whether all the work that was supposed to be done in a large Drainage District 3 project had been completed. Supervisors are the trustees for various drainage districts in the county, but the people who own property in a district and benefit from the drainage pay the costs associated with maintaining a district.

The board tabled any action on the matter for two weeks to get more information.