Johnson County budget and capital staff presented the proposed fiscal 2026 Capital Improvement Program to the Board of County Commissioners’ Committee of the Whole, describing a $347 million CIP in which the overwhelming majority of funding comes from dedicated, non‑ad valorem sources.

Mark Dapp of budget and financial planning said the FY2026 proposed CIP totals $347 million, with $321 million from dedicated funding sources. "If you look at this, in particular, you see 92.5% of the total CIP is for dedicated funding sources," Dapp said. He told the board wastewater comprises roughly 66% of the dedicated CIP and that library and stormwater projects represent other notable shares.

Dapp outlined several project categories and funding sources: airport local matches to draw federal and state funds, parks and recreation capital projects supported by their mill levy (about $14 million), and the county’s ongoing mill/overlay, bridge and culvert program. He also said the county recommends using some public safety sales tax funds for courthouse infrastructure maintenance that relates to public safety eligibility.

Staff acknowledged a gap between ongoing capital needs and the amounts currently budgeted for recurring capital: for several core public works and facilities requests the staff‑estimated need exceeded the budgeted forecast (an example cited was an $18.2 million true need versus an $8.2 million forecasted allocation for a set of items). Dapp said some projects will be funded one‑time from reserves or deferred if necessary.

Why it matters: although the headline CIP dollar amount is large, staff emphasized that most CIP spending is from dedicated funds (user fees for wastewater, stormwater sales tax, library mill levy) and therefore not freely available to substitute for general fund services. Commissioners asked about the county’s ability to retain a cushion for emergency capital needs and staff said vacancy and conservative budgeting provide some operating leeway and reserves buy time for strategic decisions.

Next steps: commissioners will review department CIP requests in department presentations; staff will return with project‑level detail, funding sources and any recommended repurposing (for example, a recommended repurposing of $150,000 previously set for an EVOC study toward a higher‑priority sheriff operations security campus project was discussed).