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Shawnee County appraiser requests largely flat 2026 budget; personnel costs drive increase
Summary
County Appraiser Steve Bowman told commissioners that the appraiser's 2026 proposal is largely flat except for personnel costs, producing a 5.3% overall increase driven by salaries that make up 95.6% of the office budget.
County Appraiser Steve Bowman told the Shawnee County Board of County Commissioners on Oct. 27 that his proposed 2026 budget is "generally considered flat other than personnel," with an overall increase of 5.3%. Bowman said personnel services account for 95.6% of his office's budget.
Bowman said some costs typically charged to his office are handled instead through the Land Records Fund administered by the Register of Deeds, enabling the appraiser's budget request to exclude expensive countywide services such as aerial flights and the county GIS enterprise system. "We have quite a few other things that we're able to keep out of our budget request because of those land records funds, including some fairly expensive things like our aerial flight and our GIS enterprise system that's used countywide," Bowman said.
Bowman also reported two recent retirements among commercial appraisers and said the office has been carrying an additional commercial appraiser as part of succession planning. "We just had 2 commercial appraisers retire," he said. "Depending upon how that goes, we may or may not fill both. If we can find someone with good experience, then we'll probably only need one."
No formal actions or votes on the appraiser budget were recorded during the presentation. Commissioners asked follow-up questions about staffing and vacancies. Bowman answered that the office will evaluate whether to fill one or both commercial-appraiser positions as recruitment proceeds.
The presentation provided commissioners with key budget drivers the appraiser expects for 2026 and identified where shared funds reduce the department's direct request. Bowman closed by offering to answer further questions from the commission.
