Johnson County Council updates 2026 budget after growth-appeal shortfall; highway bond and council stipend line items adjusted

Johnson County financial staff told the County Council on the second reading of the 2026 budgets that the county does not qualify for a state growth appeal, and they presented a revised fiscal plan that cuts or reclassifies several large line items to preserve balance.

County financial consultant Mike Reuter told the council that “we're not going to mathematically qualify for the growth appeal on '26,” explaining the county’s three‑year average growth factor remained roughly the same while the statewide comparison number rose. Reuter said the county had expected to net roughly $1.9 million from a successful appeal but that the Department of Local Government Finance (DLGF) published a higher statewide growth factor this year that excluded Johnson County from qualification.

The failure to qualify prompted Reuter to rework the fiscal plan. He said the county will remove large rollovers previously shown in the general fund and track highway bond payments on a new line so those outlays are easier to monitor. “Originally in the '26 budget there was a $12,000,000 request,” Reuter said, “we were actually planning on using $12,000,000 from the general fund, $15,000,000 from the EDIT fund, and then we'd be doing the $40,000,000 bond issue to fund the first phase of all the highway projects.” He said his revised plan replaces some of those rollovers with an explicit bond payment line and assumes…