Story County recorder presents compact, near‑balanced budget; proposes shifting $7,000 records‑management expense

Story County Recorder Stacy Harridge presented a compact, near‑balanced budget at a Jan. 30, 2026 work session, saying most revenue lines were steady and that staff had proposed modest expense adjustments.

"I want to thank the board always for your continued support of our office," Harridge said, praising office staff and saying she and Human Resources were working on ways to retain employees. She told the board that overall revenues were “about the same,” with a modest uptick in real‑estate activity.

Harridge noted two specific items affecting revenue and expenses. On state legislation, she said, "Our association continues to push forward on House File 1031, which is the fee modernization bill. ... It's currently it passed the House and it's on the Senate side." She cautioned that the bill’s outcome was uncertain but added that it could provide additional revenue to recorder offices if enacted.

On programmatic revenue, Harridge said the office had seen a decline in snowmobile renewal income after a state law change. "Our snowmobile renewal...went down quite a bit. The law changed that we only issue 1 registration, not a user permit, so that decreased a $2 writing fee per customer," she said.

On expenses, staff discussed personnel and operating assumptions. Alyssa Wignell, the director of internal operations and human resources, said the budget includes a placeholder 5% cost‑of‑living adjustment used only as a starting point while union negotiations and further analysis proceed: "We have not even had any discussions on that," Wignell said, calling the figure a working assumption rather than a decided increase.

Harridge proposed two line‑item adjustments. First, she asked to raise the communications (telephone) line based on an updated estimate from county staff: she described the change as raising the communications figure per an estimate from Colin. Second, she proposed removing a planned records‑management expenditure from the next fiscal year — changing the next‑year appropriation to $0 instead of $7,000 — and said she would try to complete needed records work before the end of the current fiscal year.

Staff and the recorder reconciled the math and agreed to leave $7,000 in the current year while setting the next fiscal year’s records‑management line to $0, producing an estimated expense reduction of roughly $6,500 across the affected lines. Participants noted the projected reduction was within a small margin of error.

The group characterized the packet as a "pretty easy one‑page budget" and expressed satisfaction that projected revenues exceeded expenses in the draft presented. Supervisor Linda Merkin, attending by Zoom, said she had no questions.

No formal motions or votes were recorded in the transcript. The meeting ended with Harridge thanking attendees and reminding them where to direct follow‑up questions; staff will return with finalized budget materials as part of the regular approval process.