Commissioners reach agreement on 2025 budget with decrease of 2.9 mills, no reduction in county services

The Board of County Commissioners reached a tentative agreement on July 16 on an approximately $201.3 million budget for 2025. They agreed on a mill levy of 41.298 mills, which is a decrease of 2.911 mills from 2024. This is the third consecutive year that the County Commission has reduced the mill levy. Two mills were reduced in 2024 and one mill was reduced in 2023. One mill is one dollar per $1,000 assessed value.

The 2025 budget included growth in property values (assessed valuation) of 6.89% compared to 10.98% the year before. The rate of property value growth in addition to reducing the Employee Benefits Fund by $4 million and moving $767,000 in behavioral health items to the mental health sales tax fund, allowed commissioners to reduce the mill levy by $5.9 million in the general fund. The general fund is the largest and most general purpose of the county’s budgeted funds. 

The 2025 budget does not eliminate any current county services.

Commissioners Karen Willey, Shannon Reid and Patrick Kelly reviewed more than 50 funding requests totaling $20.1 million from county departments and community partners.

Community partners that received new or expanded funding included:

• $2.8 million in one-time capital funds for supportive housing projects with DCCCA, Cardinal Housing Network, Inc., Ninth Street Missionary Baptist Church and the City of Lawrence as well as $600,000 to support a new flexible Housing Subsidy Pool to help individuals who need supportive housing.
• $45,000 for an additional preventions program case manager for the truancy program for O’Connell Children’s Shelter, Inc. 
• $28,000 for Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health to offset rising costs of vaccines. They also approved $42,000 for the Wellness Wednesdays Mobile Outreach clinic and $58,000 for suicide prevention programs, both are one-time funds.
• $33,222 for historical society community partners for operational expenses for utilities and insurance and $25,000 in one-time funds for a temporary collections assistant to assist multiple historical society community partners in managing their collections.
• An additional $10,000 for the KU Small Business Development Center.

Commissioners agreed to support expansion of operations at Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical for a new Station 6 and 7 as well as an ambulance replacement. The 2025 allocation is $1.68 million for the replacement of two ambulances and an additional ambulance for Station 6.

County departments that received funding for additional staff:

• A reentry program clerk and a civil process clerk for the Sheriff’s Office.
• A financial analyst for Administration.
• A security engineer for Information Technology.
• A building and grounds worker for the Maintenance Department to support the expansion of the Judicial and Law Enforcement Center and a new Public Safety Building.
• A fleet mechanic for Public Works.
• An appraiser for the Appraiser’s Office.
• A work study position for the District Court Self Help Center.

Additionally, Commissioners approved approximately $2 million for market, merit and longevity pay for county employees. They also funded the implementation of a compensation study for employees. The study does not include sworn Sheriff’s Office and Criminal Justice Services employees who underwent a compensation analysis in 2023.

Commissioners also transferred $5.4 million to the Capital Improvement Projects fund, a 5% increase from last year. Commissioners will review the 2025-2029 Capital Improvement Plan for facilities, road and bridge projects and the 2025 Operating Budget for Consolidated Fire District No. 1 during a work session at 4 p.m. Aug. 7.

The Commission held 17 hours of public hearings in the review of the 2025 budget. Video recordings of the hearings and deliberations are available on the County’s YouTube channel and website at https://www.dgcoks.gov/county-commission.

The 2025 budget will be adopted during a public hearing at 5:30 p.m. Aug. 28 during the County Commission business meeting. To view the proposed budget, visit: https://dgcoks.gov/open-budget.