photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Douglas County commissioners meet on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026.

Douglas County commissioners unanimously voted to approve the 2027 budget on Wednesday, and a couple commissioners think it would have been possible to achieve a revenue-neutral rate.

The 2027 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 last year, as the Journal-World reported. One mill is equal to $1 per $1,000 of a property’s assessed value.

The mill levy reduction was achieved 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.

This is the fifth consecutive year county commissioners have lowered the mill levy. Commissioners have reduced the mill levy by a combined 7.133 mills since 2021, lowering the rate from 47.419 to 40.286.

County commissioners also voted to exceed the revenue-neutral rate – the property tax rate that would generate the same amount of property tax revenue as the previous year – with a vote of 3-2, with Commissioners Erica Anderson and Gene Dorsey opposed.

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.

Commissioner Patrick Kelly said he was disappointed in the votes from Anderson and Dorsey, saying they didn’t express an interest in staying revenue-neutral during the budget process in July.

“I’m disappointed in the vote that we just took because I believe that our process in July is really to determine what our needs are and what our expectations are, and once we determine what the needs of the community are, we have to determine the tax rate that will meet those needs,” Kelly said.

County commissioners also unanimously voted to notify the county clerk of the intent to exceed the revenue-neutral rate last month, as the Journal-World reported.

Following those comments, Anderson said the county could use money in its fund balances to achieve revenue-neutral and not collect as much property tax revenue. Last week, the county commissioners were given a presentation on the 2025 fiscal audit, which detailed how much money was in the county’s funding reserves.

“I know we had some … differences of opinion as to how we could balance the budget,” Anderson said. ” … I think we have opportunities to not exceed revenue-neutral. But I am going to vote for the budget because there are many different areas within the budget that I absolutely support, but I don’t necessarily support exceeding revenue-neutral.”

Dorsey agreed, and said the budget could be brought to revenue neutral through specific spending reductions, such as delaying a planned code review, bringing legal services in-house and reconsidering planned county employee pay increases.

“I don’t agree with everything in the budget,” Dorsey said. “I agree with the majority that’s in the budget. Even though I think we can cut things and I voted against exceeding revenue-neutral vote for the budget.”

IN OTHER BUSINESS, COMMISSIONERS:

• Unanimously voted to adopt the 2027 budget for Consolidated Fire District No. 1, which includes approximately $3.78 million with a mill levy increase of 3.83 mills, totaling 9.830 mills. The increase to the mill levy will be supporting 10 additional full-time staff members at two fire stations, as the Journal-World reported.

County commissioners also unanimously voted to exceed the revenue-neutral rate for the CFD No. 1 budget. 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.