Phelps County adopts $4.6 million 2025-26 budget, sets final tax request

At a public hearing and meeting on Sept. 23, 2025, the Phelps County Board of Commissioners adopted the county’s 2025–26 budget and set the final tax request at $4,595,860. County financial consultant Bob Dunaway presented budget details before the board’s unanimous vote to adopt the budget and accept the tax asking. "The tax request is for $4,595,860 and the general tax request is for 4,380,360," Dunaway told commissioners during the hearing. The public hearing opened at 9:00 a.m.; no citizens were present and it closed at 9:08 a.m. The board approved Resolution 25-12 to adopt the proposed county budget and then approved Resolution 25-13 to accept the tax asking for fiscal year 2025–2026, each on unanimous roll-call votes. Dunaway told the board the county’s unused budget authority was $351,318.97 and that taxable valuation had increased by 12.3 percent. He also reported a mill levy of 0.145553, a decrease of 8.7 percent from the prior year. The measures were introduced and approved during the meeting immediately following the public hearing; Commissioners Matt Gregg and Theresa Puls served as movers and seconders on the budget adoption motion, and Puls and Malm seconded the tax-asking motion as reflected in the meeting record. The measures take effect as recorded in the county resolutions and will govern county appropriations and property tax collection for the coming fiscal year.