Stearns County Commissioners Get First Look at 2027 Budget, Some Say 7.14% Levy Hike Is Still Too High

(KNSI) – Stearns County commissioners spent Tuesday morning digging into a proposed 2027 budget that would raise the levy by 7.14%, and made it clear the number isn’t settled.

“I don’t want us to think that because we’ve seen something, that’s going to be our budget. It’s not written in ink necessarily, or in stone. Maybe in pudding,” said Commissioner Joe Perske.

The figure presented Tuesday is already about half of what county departments originally asked for. County Administrator Mike Williams told the board the requests submitted by departments would have meant a much steeper hit for taxpayers. “The budgets as proposed would have resulted in a 14.3% increase in the levy, and through the work that the four of us have done in the last several weeks, we have this down to a 7.14% increase.”

Williams pointed to labor contracts and Human Services as the biggest cost drivers. The proposal adds 13 new Human Services positions to keep up with growing workloads and state and federal mandates. County Human Services Administrator Melissa Huberty says about 94% of the services her department provides are mandated. The budget also calls for four new positions in the Sheriff’s Office.

To keep the numbers down, the Budget Committee cut or deferred several items, including money the county has spent in past years on federal lobbying. The budget also freezes funding for outside agencies like the historical society and the soil and water conservation district, scales the county newsletter back to two issues per year, and puts off a planned veterans services office in Melrose. It leans on reserves as well, including $2 million from the Human Services fund balance, an amount Williams proposes drawing down by $500,000 a year going forward.

That still wasn’t enough for some on the board, like Commissioner Jeff Bertram. “Yes, this is a good start. It’s still high for me. And the one thing that I don’t think that we’ve addressed is we really haven’t asked department directors, ‘What can you cut or move?’ We just automatically assume that there needs to be increases.”

Commissioner Tarryl Clark took a different view, crediting staff for the reductions already made and pointing to spending the county can’t control. “You have brought in an initial significant step down from where I think many counties are going to be, and part of it really is the federal and the state mandates that we don’t have a choice about.”

The board will keep working on the numbers through the summer, with budget work sessions set for August 4th on Human Services and the Sheriff’s Office and August 25th on the highway five-year plan and household hazardous waste budget. Commissioners must set the preliminary levy by the end of September, hold a truth in taxation hearing December 1st and adopt the final budget by December 15th.

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