County Board in final stages of finalizing 2025 budget; spending plan will be in the $57.7 million range

QUINCY — The Adams County Board will vote in its 2025 fiscal year budget in November and it is expected to be 3 to 4 percent higher than the current year’s spending plan.

Finance Committee Chairman Bret Austin told the board at Tuesday night’s meeting the committee and staff have compiled the expected revenues and they are finishing up with the final determination on expenses.

The budget will be available for all County Board members to review electronically next week.

“We’ll make sure that everyone has a reviewer level login that you can go and see the budget and go account by account,” Austin told the board. “You won’t be able to change anything, obviously, but if you see anything that raises a question, then you can email that into Amy (Carothers, director of the Adams County Board Office) and we’ll get a summary of those together, and we’ll address them as a finance committee.”

Austin said with an anticipated equalized assessed vaulation (EAV) increase of 7 percent on property in the county, the revenue will be able to cover a projected budget increase of 3 to 4 percent, putting it in the $57.6 to $57.8 million range.

“So we’re probably in a framework like we’ve been the last couple years, where the EAV raise is high enough that what we’re going to need to do is dictate the funds that we need to make a balanced budget and probably result in even a little bit lower of the lowering of the tax rate,” Austin said. “Although let’s be clear about that, we’ll still be asking for more money in the budget, probably in the 3 to 4 percent range, so that we can balance the expenses that we’ve had that raised.”

Austin said the increase is due primarily to negotiated salary increases for county employees as well as cost of benefit increases. He said one big ticket item, the anticipated $10 million replacement of the courthouse’s HVAC system, will be spread out over time as was other larger costs such as building the jail and other courthouse renovations.

Austin said he anticipated the final budget draft being available for public review by Oct. 30.

The County Board also heard from Curt Kelty with Friends of Justice, who described the organization’s mission and said the group may be formally requesting funds from the county in the future. Kelty, along with other Friends of Justice board members Jack Miller and Barry Cheyne, appeared on MRN This Week recently to talk about how the group wants to offer reward money to people who may have information about local cold cases.

In other action, The County Board approved:

• $50,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funding to go toward the $1.2 million in levee repairs for the South Quincy Levee Drainage District.
• $8,825.60 from the County Bridge Fund to pay for a culvert in the Fall Creek Road District.
• $35,866.88 from the County Bridge Fund to pay for various culverts County Highway 21 (South 24th Street).
• $33,970.60 from the County Bridge Fund to pay for a culvert and drainage structures o on County Highway 33 (North 30th Street).