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Osage County elections staff outline budget pressures, levy choices and postage costs
Summary
County elections staff described how recent elections and accounting timing have reduced available cash, explained proposals to allocate payroll and election-worker costs, and warned of higher postage needs tied to voter-status mailings.
Osage County elections staff told county officials during a meeting that recent election cycles and timing differences in spending have reduced available cash and will affect levy-setting for upcoming years.
A county elections office staff member said budget reports show volatile cash balances when election costs shift between years and when unexpected expenses occur. “We were estimating 58,000 … but we only got 88,000,” the staff member said when discussing line-item differences on a multi-column budget page. The staff member advised that projects budgeted in one year but completed in another require budget authority and cash in both years, which can make midyear cash appear low even when work is merely delayed.
The staff member described how payroll allocations are being handled in the draft budget: one line reflects a deputy clerk’s partial salary moved into the election budget, and a separate line of about 60 (units not specified in the record) covers seasonal poll workers and one-time election employees. “The sixty’s just what I figured in for election workers,” the staff member said, noting the amount will be lower if a primary is not required.
On levy design, the staff member distinguished between an election-specific levy and posting election costs to the county clerk’s general fund. The staff member said that money levied specifically for elections is restricted to election purposes, while funds in the county clerk general fund are more flexible. “If it gets levied in election, it can only be spent for election,” the staff member said. The staff member also referenced a prior levy level, noting language in the discussion that “we did levy nothing below $3.59.”
Staff also flagged higher-than-expected postage and mailing needs tied to voter-status maintenance. The staff member said the office sent roughly 12,500 confirmation or notification mailings last cycle and must follow up when those are returned, which can trigger additional mailings and administrative work. That follow-up and the process of moving voters between active and inactive lists were cited as reasons to budget additional postage and staffing for voter maintenance.
Questions from another participant focused on payroll classification and whether certain duties should remain in the general county clerk budget versus an elections levy. The elections staff member said some duties were shifted so that only a small percentage of certain positions’ time is charged to elections, reflecting routine clerk work that is not strictly election-related.
No formal motions or votes on levy rates or budget approvals were recorded in the provided transcript excerpt. The staff member said they have reviewed available reports (including a CIC report mentioned in the discussion) and will continue to refine the numbers before any formal levy recommendation is made.
The county will need to reconcile the timing of project spending, potential election schedules (including a possible 2026 midterm), and mailing workloads before finalizing election budget requests and levy decisions.
