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MAGIC and county offices flag server hosting, election-laptop and service costs during 2025-26 budget reviews
Summary
Presentations during the Jan. 13 Muscatine County Board of Supervisors meeting highlighted rising hosting and server costs for MAGIC GIS, a request to replace election laptops to meet Windows 11 requirements, and a modest increase in the county attorney budget driven by paying sheriff service fees.
Muscatine County board members on Jan. 13 heard budget reviews from MAGIC GIS, the county attorney’s office and the county auditor that flagged higher server-hosting charges, a planned parcel-data conversion and a near-term need to replace election laptops.
The presentations matter because the items affect recurring county expenses and service delivery: MAGIC’s hosting and server changes will raise ongoing costs for the county’s shared GIS platform; the auditor said election laptops that run precinct software are no longer compatible with current operating-system requirements; and the county attorney cited a $70,000 service-of-process line item that increased his office budget.
Mark Yarrington, MAGIC GIS manager, told the board the MAGIC budget for 2025–26 was similar to the prior year but showed two pressures: higher hosting fees for new virtualized servers and an upcoming parcel-data conversion to support ArcGIS Pro. “We actually budgeted for a 10% increase, actually got the new contract for a 3-year contract, and that actually went down by $10,000 from $53,700 to $49,700,” Yarrington said, referring to the Esri enterprise agreement.
Yarrington said MAGIC completed the county’s 2024 aerial imagery and will continue transitioning the MAGIC environment to a virtual-machine hosting model. He showed hosting estimates that rise from roughly $54,100 in the prior year to a figure closer to $95,000 in the first year of the new servers, reflecting the addition of multiple new servers and a database server expected in early 2026. He said partner contributions were expected to be stable in the short term while reserve funds were being spent down.
County Auditor Tabby (last name not specified) reviewed her office budget and told supervisors she expects two scheduled elections in the 2025–26 fiscal year: the November municipal/school election and the June primary. Tabby said one of the largest increases in her request is for voting machines and related equipment because precinct laptops used for the Iowa Precinct Atlas Consortium (iPAC) require Windows 11. “The current computers can’t be upgraded from 10 to 11,” Tabby said, adding that the office owns 58 laptops (50 needed in polling places, six for training and two spares). She requested $39,000 in new funds in addition to $66,100 remaining in the current budget to begin replacing machines.
Tabby also noted a recurring obligation created by recent state legislation: a postage-related expense tied to House File 718 requiring mailings to tax-parcel owners; she moved $10,000 of postage into administration to cover expected mailings.
The county attorney (speaker not identified by full name in the record) said his office’s overall budget was largely status quo aside from wages. He pointed out a $70,000 service-of-process line item intended to pay the sheriff for serving papers and said forfeiture proceeds are being returned to law enforcement rather than kept by his office. The attorney cautioned that staffing needs could change in coming years and observed the total requested county-attorney budget rose about 5 percent, with salary-related line items showing larger increases.
What’s next: supervisors heard the presentations during the budget-review portion of the meeting but did not take final budget votes on Jan. 13. Departments and the board will continue budget work as the county moves toward adoption of the fiscal 2025–26 budget.
