Johnson County supervisors approve FY26 budget items, bond courthouse and jail repairs; public-health nurse request fails

The Johnson County Board of Supervisors met in a budget work session in February 2025 to consider the proposed fiscal year 2026 budget, approving multiple departmental line items and bonding for major capital projects while declining a requested public-health nurse position and several grant placeholders.

The actions taken by the five supervisors at the meeting included approval of capital and operating items across departments, a $1.5 million bond authorization for previously outlined projects, and separate approvals for courthouse and sheriff's office repair funding. Supervisors and finance staff discussed levy effects — Dana and Adam presented levy and tax-calculation worksheets — and identified about a $27,000 gap that the board closed during the session. Supervisors repeatedly noted the state rollback and recent legislation that caps certain levies, which they said makes maximizing allowable levies a tactical necessity.

Why it matters: the session set specific line-item dollars that will shape tax bills for Iowa City residential taxpayers and rural agricultural land for FY26; supervisors highlighted an estimate that the current levy scenario would increase an Iowa City residential property tax bill by about 8% year over year and rural/ag land by about 6.4% compared with the prior year. Board members debated whether to trim specific placeholders (for example inmate transport and grant programs) to reduce the overall tax asking.

Key outcomes and supporting details

- Public-health nurse position: The board declined to fund an additional public-health nurse after discussion of uncertain offsetting revenues. Public health Director Danielle explained that additional immunization and WIC capacity could generate Medicaid revenue (she estimated roughly $54,000 annually if a subset of clients were Medicaid), but the department could not provide a firm revenue offset. The vote on the public-health line item resulted in a majority negative outcome (Nays recorded from multiple supervisors), so the position request was not approved.

- Inmate transportation placeholder: Supervisors debated reducing the…