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 inmate-transportation placeholder (previously carried at higher levels for several years). One supervisor proposed lowering the placeholder enough to free roughly $150,000 to cover the public-health request and a roughly $27,809 shortfall; that amendment was discussed but the board ultimately kept the existing figure in the FY26 worksheet rather than adopt the larger cut being proposed.

- Bonding and capital projects: The board approved a $1,500,000 bond to complete projects previously outlined to supervisors; it also approved $2,300,000 for courthouse renovations (capital expenditures) and approved a $3,300,000 allocation for sheriff's office repairs. Supervisors discussed rollover of unexpended FY25 project funds when setting the FY26 bond/amounts.

- Grants and service agreements: The board trimmed or zeroed several grant placeholders and service-agreement increases during the meeting. Notable changes: the greater-IC service agreement line tied to certain economic-development programs was removed from the FY26 vote package (staff noted the $30,000 program-specific expectation would be handled through service-agreement language); an “emerging organizations” grant placeholder was reduced to $0 from $25,000; a general basic grants line was reduced from $200,000 to $150,000 after a motion passed 3–2.

- Personnel and service-item votes: The board authorized some position conversions and equipment purchases and approved multiple departmental operating and capital requests during roll-call votes (examples recorded in the vote list below). On a two-item clerk upgrade in the treasurer’s office, the board approved one conversion and left the second unapproved.

Discussion highlights and clarifications

- Levy mechanics and tax impacts: Finance staff and multiple supervisors explained that recent legislation caps growth in certain levies and creates an incentive to capture the maximum allowed levy each year because the levy baseline becomes the reference for future years. Supervisors asked staff to run historical year comparisons of the percentage changes for Iowa City residential and rural ag residential so they could see how the current proposal compares to prior years.

- Revenue uncertainty: Department heads raised concerns about federal and state funding volatility (Danielle referenced proposed federal Medicaid cuts and uncertainty about Title X allocations), which complicated decisions about adding personnel that would carry multi-year costs.

- Process and next steps: Staff (Dana, Adam) said they will update the state-form levy worksheet and run the tax-calculation sheet again; supervisors scheduled another look next week to review any adjustments prior to subsequent votes.

Votes at a glance (selected line items recorded on the transcript)

- Call for ambulance (public-health/EMS equipment line): approved (Ayes recorded from John, Lisa, Mandy, Rod, V).

- Transit ambulance service funding: recorded mixed votes (John recorded a Nay on that specific transit ambulance vote; others recorded Ayes). Transcript shows at least one Nay; item moved forward according to the roll-call sequence.

- Public-health nurse (new position request): failed (majority Nay in the roll-call recorded during the public-health section).

- Inmate transportation placeholder: board discussed lowering it from the prior high carryover but the proposed larger reduction/amendment did not replace the existing placeholder during the session; the board ultimately retained the existing placeholder figure in the FY26 worksheet.

- Amendment to reduce inmate-transportation reduction (proposal to change the amount from negative 160 to negative 360): the motion to amend was seconded but the board voted to stay at the original figure (recorded Ayes across supervisors after polling).

- Treasurer office: conversion of two Clerk II positions to Clerk III — the board approved the first conversion and denied/held the second (one approved, one left at 0 after roll-call votes).

- Housing assessment/housing-study funding: a motion to continue funding a housing assessment/study was considered; in roll-call the item did not receive sufficient support and the FY26 allocation was reduced to 0 for that line in the packet.

- General basic grants (education/quality-of-life line): reduced from $200,000 to $150,000 (motion passed 3–2).

- Emerging organizations grants: reduced to $0 (item amended/zeroed and carried in roll-call sequence).

- Johnson County Agricultural Association service increase (HVAC/safety portion): voted to 0 (not approved in the FY26 packet).

- Johnson County Affordable Housing Coalition: $10,000 approved (roll-call recorded Ayes).

- Keeling Trail amenities: $2,000 approved.

- Courthouse renovations (department 44 capital): $2,300,000 approved (roll-call recorded Ayes from supervisors present).

- Radio/dispatch consoles and UPS/HVAC backup for dispatch: approved as bonding/capital items in the packet.

- Sheriff repairs and seed-shop expansion: sheriff repairs at $3,300,000 were approved; seed-shop option votes proceeded with the board selecting option 2 after a no vote on option 3 (option 2 saved approximately $340,696 per staff discussion).

- Market compensation study and related benefit/wage placeholders: approved; a separate temporary-employee wage increase (from $17.00 to $17.25/hour) was approved.

What the votes did not do

- The board did not approve all new personnel requests (notably the public-health nurse), and several one-time grant placeholders were cut or set to zero to help close the budget gap.

Meeting context and next steps

This meeting was a budget work session focused on finalizing line items and levy inputs for the FY26 proposed budget. Finance staff said they will update the state-form levy worksheet and tax calculation sheets with the amendments made and present updated figures to the supervisors for the next scheduled meeting (staff indicated updates would likely be available the next day and supervisors will reconvene for another look the following week). The board emphasized that because statutory and administrative levy caps affect baseline calculations, the board is taking a conservative approach to maximize allowed levies while moderating tax impacts where possible.

Ending

Supervisors adjourned after completing the work-session votes and instructing staff to re-run the state forms and tax sheets for review at the next meeting.