Finance director: new state health-plan surcharge forces $589,603 draw from fund balance; commissioners approve related budget amendments
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Summary
Finance Director Heather Woody told the board a newly announced 2.4% state health-plan surcharge, applied retroactively to July 1, will cost the county and require budget amendments; commissioners approved a package of amendments, requisitions and personnel moves, and discussed fund-balance uncertainty.
Finance Director Heather Woody presented multiple budget amendments, project ordinances, requisitions and personnel adjustments and told commissioners the state health-plan employer surcharge of 2.4 percent will be applied retroactively to July 1, 2025. Woody said the county must budget the employer charge this fiscal year and that Fund 10 (the county's general operating fund) will require an appropriation of $589,603 to cover the surcharge based on current budgeted salaries.
Woody said the state surcharge also increased the county's per-employee insurance cost by about $67.42 per month for employees using the plan but that county staff were still in open enrollment and some employees might elect other coverage. She said officials are preparing a new expense code so the surcharge will be visible in the monthly budget reports and stressed, "We can't pay it unless it's budgeted."
Commissioners questioned the timing and retroactive application; Woody and other staff said the state announced the change on Oct. 8 and that the Local Government Commission (LGC) advised counties to budget fund balance to meet the obligation because the budgets and tax rates were already set. The county manager and commissioners discussed that the unrestricted portion of fund balance fluctuates and that a final audited fund-balance figure for the prior year will not be available until the audit completes.
The board approved the package of budget amendments and requisitions presented by Woody. Items in the packet included:
- A $73,420 low bid award to Johnson's Equipment Company for an excavator and equipment trailer (Solid Waste). - A requisition for Motorola Services maintenance for emergency services for $46,888.77. - A $100,000 blanket purchase order to Ken Killwell Food Management for the sheriff's inmate meals contract. - An opioid-settlement budget amendment of $192,000 to match a previously approved resolution for perimeter fencing at the county airport; staff also noted a related federal grant for airport perimeter fencing of $160,167 (no county match). - Personnel adjustments including reassigning the assistant county attorney to serve as interim county attorney (first-quarter cost shown as $16,136) and a paralegal promotion (cost omitted in the packet; staff said the approximate cost was $5,000 and that a corrected number would be provided).
Commissioners asked follow-up questions about the county's unassigned fund balance, which Woody said was budgeted at $1.9 million on July 1 and had been higher the previous audit year. Woody and the county manager said the LGC evaluates three-year trends and that, if audits and fund balances show improvement, the county should come off the unit-assistance list next spring.
A motion to approve the budget amendments, project ordinance, requisitions and salary adjustments carried on a unanimous voice vote.
