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Beltrami commissioners set budget priorities as state cost shifts loom; committee named to craft FY26 plan
Summary
County administrators presented draft budget principles and warned of large state-driven cost shifts that could push levy increases into the high single digits or double digits; commissioners appointed representatives to a budget committee and asked staff for targets and scenarios.
Beltrami County officials told the Board of Commissioners on Wednesday that the county must prepare for large state-driven cost shifts and asked the board to give early policy guidance ahead of the FY26 budget process.
County Administrator Tom Barry said state and federal reductions and shifting of program costs to counties are the main drivers of uncertainty. "When those federal and state sources of funding get reduced, they have a much more amplified impact on our budget," Barry said, noting only about one-third of the county budget comes from property taxes.
Barry presented a draft set of budget principles and priorities for board direction. The recommended principles include prioritizing mission-critical, county-run services; identifying new revenue or fee adjustments to improve cost recovery; preserving staff compensation progress; lengthening capital-replacement schedules where reasonable; and smoothing state funding reductions across multiple years.
Barry ran through modeled levy impacts tied only to anticipated human services changes: "Just for health and human services, we're anticipating anywhere in the next biennium of having to, absorb... anywhere from $700,000 to $1,700,000," he said, which staff estimated could translate to a 2.5%–6% levy impact in the first biennium and an additional 7%–10% impact in the next, depending on state action.
Commissioners discussed targets and asked staff for scenario work. Commissioner Jared Winger volunteered as a board representative on the budget committee; Commissioner John Carlson also volunteered. "If you could tell us, for example, look, we don't want the levy to be any more than 10% this year, that would be helpful for us," Barry said, asking for concrete guidance to shape early budget drafts.
Board members said they prefer to avoid double-digit levy increases if possible; several advocated for keeping the levy increase at or below 5 percent in a normal year, while acknowledging state action could make that impossible. The board asked staff to separate the county’s typical operational increases from state-driven impacts so the public can see what portion of any levy change is due to underlying county costs versus state shifts.
The board agreed to meet in a budget committee in August and named two commissioners to the committee. Staff said they will return with budget scenarios, proposed targets, and recommended adjustments for formal direction at upcoming meetings.
