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What county auditors must do to certify FY26 budgets: uploads, extensions, and protests
Summary
Department of Management presenters summarized county-auditor responsibilities for certifying local budgets: document checks, the optional online upload process, allowable extension reasons, penalties for late certifications, and how to handle budget protests and consolidated tax-rate reconciliation.
County auditors received step-by-step guidance on certifying FY26 budgets and handling exceptions during a Department of Management webinar.
Carrie Johnson (Department of Management) told auditors that most local-government budgets are due April 30 (Emergency Management budgets are due Feb. 28). Once a levy authority adopts a budget, county auditors must verify required documents (proofs of publication or affidavits of posting for small cities, signed adoption pages, and the adopted budget) and certify the budget in the online system by checking required statutory confirmation boxes. After county certification, the state finalizes budgets, issues tax-certification pages and a consolidated tax rate by tax district; auditors then compile tax lists for treasurers by June 30.
Carrie outlined the state's extension rules: only cities and counties may request a written extension from the Department of Management and only for these four reasons: a newspaper failed to publish a hearing notice after receiving proper materials; a verifiable public emergency or weather event forced cancellation; illness or unexpected vacancy caused a lack of quorum; or a failure of state software/process prevented timely submission. If granted, the state issues a letter to the requesting local government and provides a copy to the county auditor. Local governments that certify late without an extension are held to last year—s property-tax dollars as a penalty.
The presenters described an optional upload process for April 30: levy authorities may upload signed budgets and proofs of publication into the state system so county auditors can download those files. Upload timestamps provide an auditable record. Signatures must be handdrawn (a scanned hand-signed PDF is acceptable); typed-only signatures are not.
If an auditor finds that publication requirements or other statutory checks are not met, they must reject the budget in the online system with a brief explanation, mark whether a new public hearing is required, and return the budget to draft status so the levy authority can republish and resubmit. Auditors should verify that adopted property-tax dollars and keyed expenditure lines (for schools: instruction, support services, noninstructional programs and total other expenditures) do not exceed published amounts.
The webinar also covered the protest process: citizens may circulate petitions to protest a budget and must file protests with the county auditor by May 10; protests to county budgets require at least 100 signatures (other budget types use a calculated threshold); the county auditor forwards protests to the three-member State Appeal Board (auditor of state, treasurer of state, and the Department of Management director), which will hold a local hearing and render a decision—typically within 45 days.
John (Department of Management) walked auditors through school-specific checks and long-term debt schedules, and presenters cautioned auditors not to certify budgets until debt instruments, resolutions and voter-approval documentation that underlie levies are verified and matched to the levy authority—s long-term debt schedule.
