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Riley County departments present early 2026 budget requests: treasurer, IT/GIS, museum and community corrections highlight needs
Summary
Riley County department heads gave the commission an early look at 2026 budget priorities on May 12: the treasurer highlighted rising postage and armored-car costs; IT/GIS flagged contract and licensing pressure; the museum requested more as-needed assistant hours to support growing programming; and community corrections outlined grant-dependent staffing and client-service needs.
Riley County department leaders used the May 12 commission meeting to preview pieces of the 2026 budget and explain programmatic needs.
Treasure's office: Shiloh Hager, Riley County treasurer, requested less than a 1% increase in the treasurer's general-fund budget for 2026. Hager told commissioners that postage costs are expected to rise about 7.4% in July and that armored-car service expenses have increased; she noted the county is exploring alternative armored-car arrangements but maintained a conservative line-item for the service in the 2026 request. Hager also described motor-vehicle and tech fund activity: in 2024 the motor-vehicle fund subsidized county operations and she transferred residual motor-vehicle cash back to the general fund; for 2026 she proposed a modest additional transfer ($5,000) to the general fund to reflect higher commercial motor-vehicle work and to continue reducing the general-fund subsidy over time.
IT/GIS: Corey (IT/GIS) presented an increase request of about $166,000 driven largely by contract and licensing expectations, and a projected $40,000 increase in capital-outlay to replace an additional server and to keep hardware replacement plans on schedule. Corey said vendors have presented mixed indications about price increases and that the department is negotiating where possible; commissioners were told a planned county move from the existing Cisco call manager to Webex should save roughly $5,000 a month for the county once fully rolled out.
Riley County Historical Museum: Catherine Hensler, museum director, reported record Wolf House visitation for April (noting 4th-grade field trips drove higher visitation) and outlined a budget request that increases hours for as-needed museum assistants (from 1,430 hours in 2025 to a proposed 2,080 hours in 2026) at an additional personnel cost of $9,750. Hensler also described a recently ended collections moratorium and a multi-week collections review that identified several hundred books for possible deaccession; she said the museum will present deaccession recommendations to the historical society board at upcoming meetings.
Community Corrections: Megan Lewis summarized funding from KDOC and other grants that support adult and juvenile services and noted several grants are time-limited. Lewis flagged the BJA (Bureau of Justice Assistance) grant that supports part of the drug-court staff and said it expires Sept. 30, 2025; the department has applied for an extension but the federal agency has paused approvals in some cases. Lewis also described the county's use of opioid settlement and local alcohol-fund dollars to support client services, and she provided the commission with projected appropriation requests for 2026.
Why it matters: The presentations give the board an early view of personnel, contractual and capital needs in key county departments. Several requests depend on federal or state grant timing (community corrections/BJA) or on vendor pricing (IT/GIS), so staff said some line items may change as budget work continues.
What the board asked staff to do
- Continue negotiations with IT and licensing vendors and bring final contract figures to budget work sessions.
- Have HR and department staff finalize personnel coding for the proposed transfers and as-needed hour increases.
- Monitor federal grant decisions that affect Community Corrections and report changes promptly to the board.
