$279,850,597 budget approved for FY2025-2026

ALBANY — After three days of presentations, the Linn County Budget Committee approved the 2025-2026 budget of $279,850,597 on Thursday, May 1 at the Linn County Fair & Expo Center.

The current budget is $240,930,651.

The Budget Committee is composed of the three Linn County Commissioners, Roger Nyquist, Sherrie Sprenger and Will Tucker, along with community members Kerry Johnson, chair; Rex Watkins, vice-chair; and Dustin Welkers.

Johnson thanked the commissioners for appointing the community members and said they enjoy the process.

She also thanked all of the department heads and elected officials for being “diligent” in building responsible budgets.

“We must not forget where these dollars come from,” Johnson said. “They came out of someone’s pockets and they work hard to earn them.”

Board of Commissioners Chairman Nyquist said after the hearings, “Linn County is in a better financial position than most other local governments, in part because the team focuses on delivering services that meet our budgets every day. We work at being in as good of a financial position as possible year-round.”

He also thanked department heads and elected officials for bringing forward well thought out and realistic budget requests.

Although approved, the budget will need to be adopted at 10 a.m. on June 26 in the Board Room of the Linn County Courthouse.

Here is the approved budget: General Fund, $57,652,602; Road Fund, $51,093,715; Fair Fund, $783,600; Law Library, $346,854; General Grants Fund, $17,910,922; Bicycle and Pedestrian Fund, $722,467; Corner Preservation Fund, $419,565; Law Enforcement Levy, $54,236,355; Historical Fund, $49,326; County Forest Park Fund, $1,432,500; Health Fund, $88,122,905; County School Fund, $1,966,100; Federal Forest Title 3 Restricted Fund, $191,353; Internal Service Fund, $4,922,333.

The permanent Tax Rate was set at $1.2736 per $1,000 of property valuation and the Law Enforcement Levy was approved at $2.98 per $1,000.

4-H and Extension Service District Budget

On Wednesday, April 30, the 4-H /OSU Extension District Budget Committee approved a budget request of $810,904 with projected total FY2025-2026 revenue of $1,010,176. Funds will be allocated by: Salaries, $392,053; other payroll expenses, $276,079; student and intermittent salaries, $25,000; and services and supplies, $117,772.

The budget will support 6.77 fulltime equivalent positions and a new half-time Field Research Assistant position to support the Field Crop Faculty position.

The Budget Committee approved levying the full permanent tax rate of seven cents per $1,000 property tax levy.