photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

The Douglas County Commission meeting room is pictured on Thursday, July 3, 2025.

Douglas County commissioners will consider adopting the 2027 budget on Wednesday, which includes a property tax rate decrease from last year.

The proposed budget being considered on Wednesday follows two weeks of hearings from community partners and deliberations between county commissioners that took place in July. Next year’s budget includes approximately $199.6 million with a mill levy – or property tax rate – of 40.286 mills, a 0.383-mill reduction compared to 2026, as the Journal-World reported.

County commissioners achieved the mill levy reduction by moving some ongoing expenses to the county’s behavioral health tax fund to reduce pressure on the general fund. In addition, commissioners decided to lower the property tax delinquency rate from 2% to 1.5%, assuming a higher rate of tax collections.

If the budget is approved on Wednesday, this would be the fifth consecutive year county commissioners have lowered the mill levy. Commissioners have reduced the mill levy by a combined 7.112 mills since 2021, lowering the rate from 47.419 to 40.286.

County commissioners decided to allocate funding to many additional funding requests in their proposed budget, including:

• $114,000 to add one full-time equivalent team lead and $85,000 in one-time funding towards another team lead for Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical’s Mobile Integrated Health Team.

• $300,000 in one-time funding for a comprehensive zoning code update for Douglas County Zoning & Codes. Douglas County is planning a comprehensive two-year code rewrite starting in 2027 following a consultant review of local zoning and subdivision regulations.

• $100,000 for funding the county’s truancy program for elementary and middle school students, “EveryDay Counts.” The program is run by Douglas County Criminal Justice Services’ Youth Services division.

• $80,000 in one-time funding for the county’s tenant eviction defense program, where tenants in Douglas County are able to access free legal consultation and representation. The program is supported by the Douglas County District Court Self-Help Center in partnership with Kansas Holistic Defenders and Kansas Legal Services.

• $108,361 for wage adjustments for staff at the Senior Resource Center for Douglas County.

• $700,000 for software and services for Douglas County Information Technology.

• $1,184,000 for a 3.4% market raise, $293,439 for a 1% merit pool raise and $152,640 for longevity pay for county employees.

Prior to the public hearing ahead of adopting the 2027 budget, there will also be a public hearing for exceeding the revenue-neutral rate – the property tax rate that would generate the same amount of property tax revenue as the previous year.

County commissioners unanimously voted last month to notify the county clerk of the intent to exceed the revenue-neutral rate last month, as the Journal-World reported. The revenue-neutral rate for the county is 38.605 mills, and if county commissioners wanted a revenue-neutral budget, they would have needed to reduce the mill levy by over 2 mills compared to the budget county staff proposed.

IN OTHER BUSINESS, COMMISSIONERS WILL:

• Hold public hearings for exceeding the revenue-neutral rate and adopting the 2027 budget for Consolidated Fire District No. 1. The proposed budget includes approximately $3.78 million with a mill levy increase of 3.83 mills for a total mill levy of 9.830 mills. The increase in mill levy will support ten additional full-time staff members at two fire stations, as the Journal-World reported. CFD No. 1’s revenue-neutral rate is 5.652 mills.

Any property tax increase for CFD No. 1 would not be countywide. The increase would only apply to properties located in the fire district, which was formed in 2020 with the consolidation of township fire departments in Wakarusa, Kanwaka, Eudora, Clinton and Lecompton townships.

The County Commission business meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Douglas County Commission meeting room at 1100 Massachusetts St. The meeting will also be available via Zoom.