It's 6 o'clock. We will start the truth and taxation budget hearing. Um, please note that tonight's public hearings are not for appealing your individual property market value, classification, or the specific tax
amount you owe. Instead, the purpose of these hearings is to provide a forum for taxpayers to voice opinions on our proposed budget, property tax levy, fee schedule, and transportation improvement plan. If you wish to discuss the your personal tax assessment, property
valuation, classification, we or classification, we ask you to join our county assessor, Caleb Bessler. He's standing up in the back by the door there. Um Caleb, and he'll take you over to the next room, the commissioner's conference room. Um and uh Caleb will take you out to that room and discuss
those topics with you. For everyone else who would like to comment on the public hearing items, we'd invite you to to do so after staff make their initial presentations. So, anybody that wants to go discuss their personal property stuff with Caleb, please uh follow him out um
out the back door there. >> Mr. Chair. Yes, Commissioner Carlson. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. I I do recommend that we combine the public hearings for the adoption of the property tax levy resolution and the adoption of the 2026 budget resolution together just to be
more efficient because they really are the same topic essentially. So, >> recommendation. So we would um Commissioner Carlson is recommending that we combine items A and B on the agenda into one public hearing instead of two separate ones since they are both
relevant to to each. So um are you making that into a um um well actually we have to open a public hearing but like that's that's going to be the intent of the first public hearing would be to to my recommendation >> a recommendation. Um, so,
uh, let's see. I don't see that specific portion in here. So, uh, you want to make a a motion to open a public hearing for both of those items. Then, Commissioner Carlson, >> I would like to make a motion to open the public hearing for both the adoption
of the 2026 property tax levy resolution and the adoption of the 2026 budget resolution. >> Okay. Do I hear a second to that motion? Second. >> We have a second by Commissioner C or by Commissioner Winger.
And the motion is to combine items A and B. So, anybody that wants to speak to either item um you'll have the opportunity to um and we will have three public hearings instead of um instead of two or instead of four, excuse me. So, we have a motion and a second. Any
discussion on on combining the uh um the property tax levy and proposed budget together in one public hearing hearing? None. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. So we have
the opening of the public hearing with the staff comments as Tom. You're taking care of that. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. chair, members of the commission, we'll just go through uh some background information here just
to refresh your memory about where we are on budget and uh and hopefully tee up any additional discussion or address any additional questions you might have as we move through uh the process. So, uh first of all, um wanted to talk about
some of the major factors that are influencing the budget. You're you're well aware of this, but some of our community members may not be. Obviously, inflation is a big driver in budgets everywhere. I mean, whether you're running a business, you're running your own household uh or county operation, inflation is a huge component. Uh we
just have uncontrollable costs. You know, when your insurance, you know, premiums go up or your electricity bills go up or your fuel goes up and and so on and so forth. Um so, we have a lot of uncontrollable costs. And then recently, we've been hitting uh getting hit with a lot more federal and state uh cost
shifts. This is these are programs or formula funding changes that um are now adding additional costs to our county operation. Uh and we're kind of used to this yearbyear, but it has become uh more pronounced and more accelerated uh
than it has. And uh and it the outlook going forward is very concerning. Of course, that is driving a lot of the the recommendations that are inside the budget. I wanted to put this up um just just to share with you. I stumbled upon this news article that is is pretty astonishing and it says just in this
next fiscal year across the entire state of Minnesota there will be an increase in property taxes totaling nearly $1 billion. Uh, of course that's statewide. That's not the county. It's not Belrammy County, thank goodness, but it's
statewide, right? And so we can see that the challenge that we are experiencing as a county and controlling the costs that I just mentioned, but in large part due to shifts from the state and the federal government onto local governments is driving a lot of the
decision-m uh and tough conversations around budget. So I just wanted to point that out um as that is um pretty concerning. A couple of things here that the county does have one of the highest tax burdens in the state. We're well aware of that. uh every time we put the budget together it's top of mind. Um
there are reasons for this and I want to come back. One one of the biggest reasons that is is we have a high needs community. We have a high poverty rate. We have a low medium in uh tax or low median um income. And then also we have a very small tax base. And so I'll talk about the tax base in just a little bit.
But um we also have growing mandates. And as these mandates grow, um, we are going to be required to, as we have in the past, absorb additional cost shifts. For Belmy County, I wanted to put it in perspective. You know, we anticipated, um, uh, based upon what has been shared
with us from the associations, the governor's office, the Senate, and the House sides, uh, and the bannual budget that was put together, we're anticipating between 700,000 and $1.7 million of cost shifts just in the fiscal year 2627. Uh and that's just for
health and human services and probation. And then an additional 2 million to three million more on the health and human services side only for fiscal year 2829. Our concern is that the numbers are low and that uh there there could be a growing this could be a growing trend
that could continue to accelerate uh and cost us additional funds. If you had to convert that into levy um we would have to raise the levy an additional 2.5 to 6 1/2% in that first bianium and then and then beyond that an additional 7 to 10 12% in the second bianium. So these are
real numbers. I mean there's there's big drivers going on. Um I wanted to talk next about the tax base. Uh, you know, we we talk about this every year, but a lot of people in the community may not realize when you look at the geographic area of the entire county, less than 25%
of that is is property tax eligible. Uh, that's significant. Uh, we have a very small property tax base. What that means is with a smaller tax base, essentially the effects of cost shifts can be as much as three or four times greater than
a county for example with a much greater tax base. Okay, we have a lot of public lands. We have a lot of um uh nonprofit areas. We have reservation land. We have a lot of areas that are just not not eligible for property taxes, but yet we still have to serve. And so that um that
burden of shifting cost to counties is amplified on counties who have much smaller tax bases um like Bel Tramy County does. Um so anticipating all of this uh we started early. I mean we've been talking about budget since
February. Uh you know that uh we've been planning a different approach. Um and essentially we modified the budget calendar to accommodate this approach and um we gained early input from the board as it relates to kind of direction that we wanted to take into the budget
committee uh and deliberation process. And so we we did get from the board that hey we absolutely do not want to see the levy grow beyond 10%. That was a good hard fast number uh and that we needed some guidance that was going to help us put the budget together. And so the county adopted the budget principles and
priorities. Uh and based on that information and that guidance, uh the budget committee then went to um uh put the budget together essentially make the recommendation that's that's before you right now. Uh those are the members of the budget committee for fiscal year 2026. And essentially uh the formal
process to the budget begins uh really in June. Although informally and behind the scenes, finance, administration, staff and others are starting at usually like April time. Uh but essentially there's a lot of work that goes on that culminates in the development of the budget and then the preliminary presentation of that budget in September
and statute requires that the county board establish a preliminary budget before September 30th of every of every year and you have done that. Um and of course you are not allowed to raise the tax levy uh or budget beyond what was approved on the preliminary. Uh so so
there are some constraints that come uh in this process. uh but certainly you can make adjustments in other ways. So I wanted to talk a little bit about the budget details uh and in particular talk about the generation of the budget and the pressure that we constantly um endure in developing the budgets and the
department heads. You know we've all been around the block you guys as as commissioners have been around the block many times on this. Each year the story gets more dire. Each year we're asked to do more with less and then the next year even more with even less and the next year even more with even less and the cycle just kind of continues and
continues. Now recently with that we we've been we've been asked to take on higher state burdens, higher cost shifts as I've mentioned uh particularly from the state and a little bit from the federal government too. Um so when we go through this process the staff generated a budget initially that would have
required about 16.5% of levy increase in order to run. Um, when we get to the internal administrative review, that's when I work with the department heads. We try to come up with other funding strategies or grants or ways to reduce costs or share costs or other sorts of a lot of different ideas. Uh, we're able
internally to get that down this year by about a million dollars and and and then that would have required a levy increase of 13 and a half%. We of course we knew that wasn't going to fly either with the guidance that the board had given to us. So, uh, when the budget committee got a hold of that, um, refined budget, uh, we
continued to chop and chop and chop and make adjustments and essentially got the levy to 9.63%, which is what being recommended tonight. Uh, another reduction of 1.25 million. So, in total from a staff request to the end of the process where we are right now, we've cut an additional 2.25 million out of
the budget. Um, and that doesn't include the stuff that was cut right at the very beginning that that's not even um, shown on the on the schedule here. So, let's talk about the 2026 budget highlights. Um, first of all, um, we're going to talk a little bit about revenues. Revenues are up about $2.3 million. And,
uh, this is coming from additional tax revenues, largely u levy dollars, um, in order to to finance the operation. And I want to talk a little bit about what that means. Um, our levy increase recommendation this year is driven by two um, primary components. The first one is operating increase. This is the
stuff that just churns. you know, labor costs go up, uh, insurance rates go up, uh, fuels go up, utilities go up, um, all of that stuff goes up. That's the inflationary cost of doing business. That represents 62% uh, of the levy increase uh, that's
being recommended. The other 30% 38% is coming in cost shifts. These are direct traceable costs coming from the state or federal government. And I want to go through that in a little more detail here in just a little bit. um additional intergovernmental revenues. We I have to say um as we
continue to be challenged um in balancing our budgets, working within our means, tightening our belts, all of those things that taxpayers want us to do and we do every day. Um we have gotten very good at recovering costs
that are owed to the uh particularly in the health and human services arena. um rent rental costs for example to run the operations that the state mandates for us. Um also recovery costs um fees other sorts of um costs that the state uh is
is um is eligible or that we are eligible to receive from the state um that require additional and burdensome tracking and um accounting and all of that stuff. I have to give it to the accounting group Josh and and others inside health and human services and to the leadership of Ann Lindseath our
health and human services director. We have we can definitively show a much bigger cost recovery of of the cost to administer statemandated programs because of the efforts that our health and human services team has pursued.
That's significant. Even though we've had large increases in health and human services um mostly because of these cost shifts or funding formula changes, the reality is that our health and human services team is knocking it out of the park as it relates to the work that they do. And they're a big reason that our our levy was able to get under 10% uh
because we are we are able to um essentially reallocate um intergovernmental reimbursements in a much more successful way. Uh some other changes inside the budget um there's reductions in other financing sources and some of this is on the books off the books stuff like for example we posted our jail bond proceeds. That's why you
see in 2024 when we got the jail bond to $40 million it came off the books because then it got earmarked to use for the construction of the b of the jail. So when you say, "Wow, why did you have $40 million in other financing sources for 2024?" And then where'd that money go in 2025? Well, that's your mark for the jail. It's very restricted funding.
It's going to pay for bond payments. Um, and then we expended the funds. The difference between the 6 million and uh and 2025 on other other financing sources and the 2 million in 2026 was the final implementation of the market study. Remember the classification compensation study that cost the county
a lot of money. Took us four years to save up the roughly 3.6 $6 million uh to allow us to implement a long overdue market study uh that had not been done for, you know, well over a decade. Uh okay, so let's talk a little bit about the property tax levy. This is
what it looks like. There's your 9.63% increase. Uh $2 million of that increase, as I mentioned before, about 60% or so is uh related to uh cost of doing business stuff. The other uh 3.65% of it or 1.2 2 million is state and
federal cost shifts. And so I want to talk specifically about that because I get asked a lot, what are you talking about? Like what what do you mean by these cost shifts? What are they specifically? So here's the detail of those cost shifts. These are the real cost shifts that we've had to absorb in 2026. Uh probation, a funding formula
change done by uh by um the state uh cost us an additional $185,000. comp competency restoration funding does not meet criteria funding and uh those two are are state and that's going to cost us an estimated $100,000 for next year. That's that's funding that uh it's
going to take to uh administer and or doesn't come any longer uh at the full rates that we've been used to. SNAP administration reimbursement reduction uh that's a federal uh so that's going to cost us more to administer those programs without the funding. the behavioral health fund reduction. So,
all of that together. Uh, and then, uh, I wanted to add this cost shift contingency and talk a little bit about that because we know as a county that more cost shifts are coming. We can either take two choices, right? We can bury our heads in the sand and wait for them to come and then jack up the the
levy or we can start to use the time we have to level load uh, or smooth those anticipated increases. Now, in the budget principles and priorities, the county board unanimously agreed, let's smooth that out. Let's try to keep the
burden um as smooth as we can and and not have wild adjustments to the property tax levy as a result of cost shifts. So, we built in a contingency of 700,000. And the idea is that that 700,000 is about, you know, that if you multiply that by four years, that's your
2.8 million that we're predicting we're going to need uh by the end of the second bianium. So, that's what we're trying to build in and build a fund for um as well. Now, keep in mind that's going to have to grow by that same amount every single year. I mean, it's not like at the end of four years you
got 2.8 million and that's onetime money if you use it all that up because you're only putting 700,000 in. So, each year you'd have to add another 700,000. So, next year that contingency will be 1.4. The year after it will be 2.1. The year after be 2.8. if things continue on the
trajectory that the state is communicating and they're communicating a $6 billion deficit and they need a way out of that deficit and they have already enacted um pretty significant cost shifts and are talking about many others uh that are significant as well
and so we have to prepare for that. So that's what that contingency is as opposed to waiting in year three or four and then saying well we needed 20% property tax increase uh because we kind of burned the time we had hoping and praying that it wasn't going to happen but here it is and then what do you do?
So so that's the thinking around that and that's what that budget principle and priority is all about as well. Uh so next we want to talk about bottom line. Oh yeah so this is that dollar amount. Sorry I didn't cover that. by 2028. That's the estimate that we had mentioned we're going to probably need
um based upon what's been communicated to us so far. So, let's talk about bottom line adjustments. Um you know, I get asked a lot, well, what where exactly did you cut and and how much and and where's the where are the cost drivers and all this stuff? This is pretty much uh a department by
department analysis uh in this budget. Um there are I call above the line and below the line adjustments, right? Above the line costs us more money. below the line is either neutral or saving us money. And you can see that when you're above the line, uh we have increases in
probation that were driven by the state state cost shifts. If it wasn't for the state cost shifts, we'd be neutral. That would be below the line. Uh human resources had 18% increase because of the state paid family medical leave mandate as well as other insuranceances and other sorts of things like that.
That's that's a cost shift. So, it's not really a cost shift. It's a new mandate, I should say, a new unfunded mandate. uh facilities. We did have a legitimate increase. We've got a a big capital project on the Health and Human Services building. We got to replace those rooftop units. We've been putting that off for years. We can't put it off any
longer. So, um that's that's increasing that budget one time for that big giant capital project. Uh the recorders office has a little bit of an increase and that's because uh less people are using recorded documents and so the revenues are coming on lower. So, that creates an an overall increase in expenses. And
then health and human services has about 4.5% of increased costs associated with state cost shifts as well. Every other department is either at zero or reducing or fund area I should say. That's that's pretty significant. Um as you know and what's gotten a lot of attention lately
is community programs, right? So let's talk a little bit about community programs. These are not things that most elected officials or administrators or staff want to cut. We know that community programs are good for the community. That's why we have them in the first place. The problem is we can't
finance things the way we have been financing and with the pressures that are coming from above. We just don't have the resources unless the board wants to tax their way out or cut in other areas. I mean, there there are other things that can be done, but um you know, I'm I'm sure that has
consequences as well depending upon what you'd want to consider. So, let's talk a little bit about these um community programs. Uh the first thing I want to talk about is um the historical society. It is true we provide about $7,500 you know for a long time now to the
historical society provide them operating income. Um told that's around 8 to 10% of their budget. Um of course that was recommended as um not being funded this year. In response the historical society was able to leverage some additional funding. Uh they got
over $15,000 in private contributions to backfill that. you know, I don't know if that's sustainable. You know, that at least covers two years potentially, but uh but maybe maybe there's other alternative funding sources that can continue. Um you know, I don't know how that's going to work. Um let's talk
about Paul Bunan Transit because there's a lot of misnomers about this. But Paul Bunan Transit um initially over two decades or roughly two decades or so ago um the city of Baiji and Bel Tramy County created a public transit board and out of that birth Paul Bunion
Transit and it was operated for a long time until Paul Bunan Transit was able to get on their own two feet and essentially run their program uh virtually independent and that rendered the public transit board essentially irrelevant and stopped meeting in around
as I understand it 2018. 18 or 19 or so. And so the public transit board never met uh and essentially stopped contributing um to Paula Transit because they were kind of upstanding on their own. So even though we on the books continued to in the budget put $7,500
to$10,000 uh we would never be invoiced for it except for one time in 2014 or sorry invoice in 2020 uh for $14,000 for a share of two buses. That that was it. That's the only amount uh that we were ever built for at least in the last decade that I could find. Um, no other
invoices were paid and the public transit board and the joint powers agreement was dissolved by both the city of Baiji and the Bel Tramy County Board in 2024. That absolves the county of any fiduciary responsibility or oversight
and that's the way and Paul Bunan uh, executive director and staff were involved in those conversations and participated and agreed. So, I just wanted to me mention that because a lot of people have been critical of the county for like not supporting transit. Well, there's no need to support transit
any longer in the way that we had in the past. Now, that doesn't mean to say that transit couldn't expand or there couldn't be more offerings and that kind of stuff, but in the form that was originally conceived and under the joint powers agreement and the board operating rules, it it became obsolete and that's
why it was um essentially disbanded. Now, let's talk about KRLS library funding because that gets a lot of attention, too. Um, in order for the county to participate in the library district, it has to meet a certain funding requirement. We call this the
statemandated minimum. And that's the minimum amount of funding that the that that any jurisdiction that wants to be part of a library district has to has to finance. And it's different depending upon your jurisdiction, how many people you have, blah blah blah. So for the state for the Bel Tramy County, our
state minimum mandated level of funding is $265,162. Now the county when it could and for a long time has provided way more funding than the state minimum mandate. In fact, this is what the funding level was and I just went back 10 years. I mean it goes
back even further than this. But in the last 10 years, based upon the state minimum mandate and what the county actually appropriated, you can see that during that 10-year period, the county has given nearly $1.5 million of additional funding to the library beyond the statemandated minimum. And it's
grown significantly over the years. I mean, that's that's pretty significant. Um, just so that you know, KLS has five member counties and it has nine cities. All of them participate in this library district and and get the services from the library district. Well, we we did an
analysis um uh the auditor treasurer and myself um year or two or so ago uh and and when we were asked you know at the funding like where's the funding coming from where does it go who's contributing all this kind of stuff and that analysis showed that Belrammy County Biji and um
Blackduck were among the highest per capita contributors to the library district which is which is fine when we if they choose to do that. Um, Crowing County, however, for at least since the inception, has been paying the state minimum mandated amount. A community
that has a much bigger tax base, a much bigger um um tax revenues is paying the state minimum this entire time up until this year, as you heard from the executive director. Um so for this entire time the second poorest county
and uh two of our cities have been underpay or have been subsidizing Crowing County and other entities for over a decade and now we reach a point in time where it's a very significant struggle for us to continue that
practice and the county I mean it's criticized but I think sometimes people don't understand the context in which we're operating and the realities in which we're facing largely driven by um the state. And so I just want to point that out because it's significant. The
county has done I think a great job supporting the library and I think continue to support the library when and how it can given the circumstances. So just something for uh you to to to think about uh when we move on and we talk about you know how this translates into
um curbing expenses because you I get asked this question a lot. Well, what really did you cut? like what strategies are you guys using to control your costs or tighten your belts and all this stuff? And you know, the public has a right to know like what we've been doing and and how it uh how it relates to how
we operate as a as a as a as a county. This isn't just about like balancing the budget on the back of community programs. This is about a multiaceted approach to reducing costs or increasing revenues by doing a number of different things. And so I just want to throw just a couple of these things up that we've
had to do. We've had increased property taxes year after year for these cost shifts. We've also eliminated seven staff positions over two years just to try to get our balance to budget. So, we're chopping positions. We're increasing taxes. Um, we've created a
cost shift contingency fund, reduced department budgets, a portionment values, we're inventorying and starting to sell land now. Uh, we're modifying rates and fees, doubled our efforts on recoverable costs and billing, like I said in the Health and Human Services Department. We're applying for more grants. Thank goodness we have the
county engineer that we do. We get a lot of money. Um Mr. Hazbar has done a fantastic job and there are a lot of people across the county that do a great job in getting grants for us. Um you know, our environmental services does a good job as well. Um we're financing uh debt differently. We just talked about
that. We're going to save taxpayers $12 million over the life of those bonds if we can reduce the term and also reduce the bond issuments, right? Uh we're also increasing pressure on federal and state representatives. They'll tell you we're
down there and we're squawking. We're letting them know you are really impacting our operation when you pass these costs on to our local governments or you change funding formulas or you reduce the amount of funding you traditionally give to us. And so that's comes in in education and lobbying and a
number of other ways. And that's just a small smattering of the types of things that we're doing to really try to be sensitive around developing reasonable budgets to the best degree that we can given the circumstances that we have. So let's talk a little bit about these anticipated revenue sources. This is
what it looks like in the fiscal year 2026 budget. U property taxes are going to make up around 41% of the budget. It wasn't long ago that property taxes only made up about a third of our budget. So you can see just in the last several
years a trend where we have had to absorb more costs and place them on our local property taxpayers because of these cost shifts, funding formula changes and other sorts of unfunded mandates. Um so this is generally um
what our budget looks like. Uh about 41% or so comes from property taxes. uh the rest of it comes from other either special assessments, intergovernmental funds, that's state funds or federal funds for example, interest, you know, so on and so forth. You see the breakup there. This is where the money goes. So
a lot of people like where does your money go? Um we have uh sorry we have a lot of expenditures that go principally the probably the three biggest are um highway and streets, public safety and human services. But those are kind of missionritical that's like what counties
do. I mean that that's the mission of the counties. Then we have support services which is also known as general government. This is like HR, uh legal, IT, um you know, administration, um HR if I didn't say that already. There's a number of different support agencies
that are required for those other organizations inside our our um our county government to function properly. Um so any event, um sanitation has its own funding as well. uh little bit not as much in regard to expenditures on the
whole. We have some debt service, you know, which I'm I'm pleased is not huge. It's going to get a little bigger as we go after the second bond for the jail, but it's it's not like a lot of organizations have. Uh so that's budgeted expenses. And then uh lastly, I want to talk about the American Rescue Plan Act funding. This was known as ARPA
funding. We have since we received this funding of of about $9.2 million. We have always accounted for this separately. That's what the board asked, you know, years ago. Just account for this separately. It's onetime money. We want to use it on one-time things, not ongoing costs. Um because then what do
you do when you run out of the money? You don't you don't have the money, but you still have the ongoing cost. So, essentially um this is the amount that's being requested this year, about $344,000. Uh and that's the list of things that are being requested as one-time um
expenses out of the ARPA fund. So, just as it relates to accounting, here was our original aotment of 9.2 million. Uh, we've encumbered in FY 21 through 24 about 7.7 million. Uh, with this request, if that's approved, of 344,000,
you'll have an unrestricted balance of about 1.1 million. Again, keep in mind that that is one-time money. Once it's spent, it doesn't get replenished. Okay, so that's what I have for you in regard to acknowledgements. Um, there's a lot of people that put the budget together. I'm so grateful for everyone's
contributions and um you know it's been a tough year. Every year is tough when we go through the budget, especially government budgeting. It's always tough. You know, there's the demands and expectations of the taxpayers and our department heads and our commissioners and so on and so forth. And we just we try to do the best we can in balancing
all of that. But um but it, you know, it's it's it's what we could do with what we had this year. And so um with that, I'll stop and pause for any questions uh that you may have. Uh otherwise we can turn it over to uh the public to to comment. >> Anybody have any questions for Tom
immediately? >> Okay. Thanks Tom. You bet. >> At this time we'll open it up for public comment. Anybody that wishes to comment, please uh come up to the podium and let us say your name and address if you will
and >> Yeah. Hi, my name is Ken Grant here, 17310 510th Street. Thank you commissioners for offering us public comment time. I had a I had a question and and maybe Mr. Barry can explain this real quick. U the bottom line
adjustments that you showed um like you had down highways 0% but when I look at the projected budget compared to what it was in 2024 there is an increase in highways and roads from 14.6 million to 20 million
with about 25% or excuse me that was general government the highways and streets goes from 17 6 all the way up to 29.1 for a 40% increase. So I don't know how the accounting works um and exactly
what the bottom line adjustment is which shows 0% when actually there's a big increase. So I'd just like to get a little information on that and those are pretty big budget numbers. Um you know talking about um tax revenues and that type of thing. It always seems like one
way to uh deal with that is to invest in your people and investing in your people to try to raise incomes and that type of stuff. Uh according to the the budget, the human services have gone down from
35 million to 31 million 2024 to 2026. and the budgets that uh you were looking at the um bottom line adjustments for uh the library and that type of stuff. When I was looking at the budget, these
are relatively small amounts, but culture and recreation is down, economic development is down, and it seems like those would be areas that you'd want to invest in to try to increase tourism, increase dollars coming in. And I'll just make one one final plug about
education and its uh connection to the library. As a second grade teacher at JW Smith, we were a school that had about 80% poverty rate. And one of the things you
notice with kids coming from poverty is that over the summer they tend to have a huge drop in their test scores because they're not getting a lot of literacy, a lot of cultural development, that type of stuff. And it would seem to me like
an investment in the library, particularly in summer programming, would help the kids that um have literacy programs during the summer. they'll come back to school and have a gain and they might be uh in a reading group with a kid that didn't have that
when they come back and test the kid that um has had literacy activities during the summer will show actually show some growth and a kid that was in the same reading group with them at the end of the spring will show a significant drop and it'll take teachers
two three months just to get the kid where they were in terms of their skills. Um, so it just seems like that would be a good area to invest in the library, their summer programming, and also the history center, trying to get the kids in and develop some of those, you know, some of those resources
because those are your future taxpayers, right? Those are your future entrepreneurs. And when you have those kids that come in and they've had a serious drop, it's really a killer in motivation when they come in and the kids that they were working with last year are way ahead of them. they
struggle to keep up and that's a yearly thing. Every year they come in and they lose couple three months and they're always so you have a very bright young kid and they see other kids passing them up. So I guess that's just how I like to see and I just like to have a little bit
better understanding on that zero adjustment. Thank you. >> Thank you, Ken. Tom, if you wanted if you want to respond to anything or not, if we want to just >> I can either meet with him separately to go through that because I'm not exactly sure where he's pulling his numbers and
I don't want to misrepresent anything. But generally, I mean, what I could generally say in and our our our county engineers here as well as our uh county auditor treasurer, but there's a lot of pass through money in government. So, a lot of times things get earmarked for projects. For example, in in um in our
um county highway department, we'll have money that comes directly from the federal or the state government that goes into a specific project and it gets earmarked into that project and so the expense and the revenue net zero out. So you can actually see where way you got a lot more money but it zeros back out because that's dedicated to that project
as a restricted fund. Does that make sense? So so that stuff's kind of kind of taken off the side. Even though it looks like you've got this big increase, you also have a corresponding decrease or a net zero because that money is meant for the specific project and it zeros out. So, so those those can be
confusing inside the budget when you look as like, well, wait a minute, you got an extra $10 million for this project. Well, that that's true, but we also have an extra $10 million for the expense of that project, and that's why it zeros out. Well, I just asked the question then. I know like you know I was looking at some
of the expenses and for a roundabout there's a lot of federal and state money that come in, but it looked like the county share for every roundabout was about $300,000. So, you know what I'm what I'm going off is the projected budget I saw on the
internet. And so the county is, you know, when it shows that the county's money for highways is going up $5 million, that is real money, right? Right. There is a real increase of $5 million from 2024 to 2026.
>> Ken, I think the difference is that it's not levy dollars. It's grant pass through grant money, stuff like that that is earmarked for specific reasons or specific projects. It's not us raising the levy by that much. >> Okay? That's that's why it shows net zero because it's not actually affecting
our levy. >> Okay. And so that is not tax dollar tax. >> Well, it's tax dollars on a state or federal basis, but not local tax dollars. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> The next person that would like to come up
>> again, please state. >> My name is Randy Berg. I'm a resident of uh district three. Commissioner Winger is my uh commissioner. Uh again, I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak to you this one last time
regarding the proposed cut in funding to the Ka Kitigami Regional Library System. I wrote to each of you last week and I'm sure you've read my letter and I don't intend to belabor the points made therein. I want to extend my thanks to
commission or to county administrator Barry for his detailed uh outline of uh the proposed budget and the reasoning which uh underlies some of the uh figures which
have been recommended for your consideration. I don't think anyone here present could come away with any other impression from what uh was displayed that the community services portion of
the proposed budget is bearing if not the lion share in actual dollars the lion share in net reductions to achieve the budget figures that uh you've aspired to attain.
uh a 42% cut in the proposed support or from the current level of support to KRLS. Um nothing even comes close. County Administrator Barry took pains to
outline exactly what the reasoning was behind the recommendations associated with um the reductions in support to the historical society
and to the Paul Bunan transit uh system. Basically what we have is a justification for the cuts to the historical society that points to private philanthropy as the remedy
in relation to Paul Bunan transit the justification is well there really wasn't any requirement and there certainly isn't anymore when we come to the library the reasoning becomes a little hazier.
We hear that Bel Tramy County has supported the Kitigami Regional Library system generously in the past. Uh certainly that's laudable, but it really doesn't represent uh an
adequate justification for uh the proposed draconian cut of 42%. Now, the justification that perhaps the wealthiest of the five counties in the Kitigami Regional Library System,
Crowing County, pays the state minimum, merely invites the observation that I don't want to be engaged in a race to the bottom against Crowing County. There are many admirable aspects about
Crowing County, but this is not one of them. It's a source of pride to me that Bel Tramy County, this county has, in spite of its limitations in terms of public financing,
uh, been able to exhibit the kind of support it has historically for libraries in this county. I could go on at length u get into the weeds about
what our property tax base is and what payments in lie of taxation we receive from other government entities and how the results of federal budget cuts are
adversely affecting us. but ironically simultaneously lightening the tax burden that sits on many of ours in terms of their income taxes. Obviously, there's an effort to shift
the responsibility for imposing taxes nec taxes necessary to support essential government services to the grassroots. Well, you are the grassroots and you must determine what essential government services will be supported.
As I said in the conclusion to my letter to you, I say that our libraries provide a government service every bit as essential as law enforcement. They protect and serve our citizens
by arming them with the most important safeguard of ordered liberty. knowledge. I urge you at this point to reach into that contingency fund to address the
funding shortfall that is set out in the preliminary budget that's been adopted for the Kitigami Regional Library System. I ask you to restore the level of funding to the 2024 level.
I ask you to restore the faith of the citizens of this county that their government is receptive and responsive to their needs and their expressed desires.
This county values its libraries and I ask you to value them as well. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hi there. >> My name is Cherylyn Warren. My address is 708 Maple Ridge Court Northwest
Bumiji. and I am the branch manager at the Bumiji Public Library. And I wanted to address a few things with you. And first of all, again, I want to reiterate I recognize a difficult job that you all do making these types of budget
decisions. And I appreciate what you do and the um and and everything that you have to go through to reach the decisions that you have to do. I do understand that since September, you've been hearing from your
constituents every meeting here about their concerns for the library and what these budget uh cuts mean for you for us uh in Bel Tramy County. And I did want to bring up a few things.
First of all, while it's uh fresh on my mind, I did want to bring up Mr. Bar's comments about comparing Bel Tramy County to Crowing County's minimum maintenance of effort. The um Bel Tramy County minimum maintenance of effort,
which is what you are uh which is what you are funding us for this year, is around $270,000. And that number was set in 2011 based on budgetary numbers from 2009.
That number has not increased in 16 years, 14 years actually, but it's based on budgetary numbers from 16 years ago. So I would have I would challenge any of you to try to run your organizations on
the budget in today's world and budget numbers from 2009 and see how that would, you know, impact you because that's what you're asking the library to do. Now, it is true that Crowing County since 2011 has paid only the minimum
maintenance of effort as mandated by the state of Minnesota. However, their numbers are $59,127 as opposed to the 270,000 Bel Tramy County has to pay if and on top of that, Belrammy County only has one library. We
have two. So the one library in Crowing County, I'm sorry, Crowing County only has one library, but if you go to that one library which is in Brainer and compare it to the Bumiji library, there's not a whole lot of difference. There's about the same number of staff. There's about the same number of there's
about the same size. We have about the same number of materials available to us, but we've still are going to be operating on almost half of what they are going into 2026.
So while it is true that that curl wing has paid the minimum maintenance of effort mandated, it is almost double what Belrammy County has and those numbers have not gone up since 2011 again based on numbers from 2009.
in Bel Tramy County since 2011 has been uh progressive enough and generous enough to keep up with inflation and the rising costs of living and the rising number of um needs that Belrammy County
has seen and we've appreciated that and the city of Bumiji has done that as well. Um, however, that um, so it's not like you're being saying looking at the budget and saying,
"Oh, well, we're going to we're going to pay them give them $173,000 more because that number that we've reached ahead at this year has been ongoing since 2011. So again, thanks thank you to the past
county commissions for for continuing to recognize that rising costs and for funding that. But um things aren't as simple as comparing um Belrammy County to Crowing County and
the minimum maintenance of effort and Belrammy County. To dispute another thing that Mr. Barry said Bel Tramy County has not been supporting Crowing County because we've been paying more than the minimum maintenance of effort. The monies that
you pay to Kit Chagami Regional Library System stays within the Belrammy County libraries. Now the city of Bumiji pays is the the building that the library is housed in is it belongs to the city of Bumiji. The
city of Bumiji pays for all of their up all of the upkeep and the operating the utilities um maintenance of the building and whatnot. So the the money that we get from the county pays for our
personnel costs and pays for our mainten our our books the books that we pay our our materials budget. So when we're looking at how we're going to um run the library based on 42% 40% less
than what we've made this year. The only place that we can make those cuts is in personnel costs and in material budgets and even um and that's split that's between us and black duck but we have uh discussed already that black duck needs to maintain a 20our operating
uh level and that means that they can only cut one hour from their current schedule which means their employees are being cut one hour as well. So the the bulk of this cut is is falling on the on
the shoulders of the Bel Tramy County or the Bumiji Library system and that's something that we're taking on um to support our Black Duck or Black Duck um neighbors. But um I did want to bring up
a couple of other things besides explaining how our money with um is used with the minimum maintenance of effort. Mr. Barry, um thank you for your for your presentation because I did learn a lot about budget about um how the budget
works and I've learned far more about budgetary processes in the past couple of years than I ever desired to. However, um one of the things that you did say is that there are uncontrollable costs coming up that we all must face
that that you must face in the in the county. um increased utility bills, inflation, those types of things. And but that means that I'm making those same um facing those same uncontrollable costs as a as a resident, as a person.
I'm my utility costs are raising, my property taxes are raising, everything is raising. And and that's not just for me. It's for everybody living in this county. But when we when we found and research has shown that when people need to make cuts to their personal budgets,
to their household budgets, that the use of the libraries increase because they're cutting their entertainment budgets. They're cutting their cable budgets. They're cutting their internet. They're cutting the money that they used to buy for books. They're going to the library to use them. Um they can't
afford their internet. The kids aren't getting computers, so they come to the the library. They check out books rather than buy them. The um they use our Wi-Fi rather than paying for their own internet. And it is um a documented
fact that that's what happens. And one of the um one of my one of the um library advocates in the nation said said that cutting libraries during during budgetary crisis is like cutting
hospitals during a plague because that's basically what you're doing is you're cutting the library at a time when people need it the most. Um, and um, again,
just to reiterate what I've what I've told you in the past, we're going to be going from 56 hours of operating cost, six hours operating hours open to the public, which is six days a week, to potentially going down to 35 hours a week, and being open four days a week.
Um, that's going to have a big impact on on people because despite what other people think, the libraries are invaluable and we provide a service for people that unless you come to the library on a on a frequent basis or on a
regular basis, you might not recognize. So, in addition to cutting down to 35 hours, we're going to have to cut three three employees out of my out of nine employees. And one of those employees is
a is a maintenance man. So, so out of the eight people who do front-facing work at the budget or at the at the belt in Baiji Library, we're going to be losing three of them. And I'm not exaggerating when I say that I
lay awake at night. At 3:00 in the morning, I'm awake trying to count numbers in my head thinking, well, if I cut Michael's hours down to this and I cut Kate's hours to this, then we can um keep Michael from being cut. And if I if
I don't if I cut 8 hours from my from my budget, from my time, then we can keep this person on for this many hours. It's something that keeps me awake at night. So, this is this is such a difficult decision for for me. It's a difficult
position for me. And while I recognize that you can't change the levy at this point and you can't um you probably have very little little um budget wiggle room in your budget. You should be aware of the very human cost that these that this is that is
taking on our on our employees and on the people who will no longer be able to access the library because we are cutting that 40%. Thank you. >> Thank you. Good evening. Thanks for the opportunity
to speak. Um, I am a passionate about learning, a teacher for many, many years. Early >> your name, please. M. >> Oh, yeah. Sorry. I'm Bayata Grant here and I am a Biji resident for a long time. Um, I just want to reiterate that
meet me halfway offer that the KRLS system offered two weeks ago. Um, that would be about $81,000 which means Belrammy County would have to fund I think the
other 90,000. So it on a big budget, even on a small budget, that is a drop in the bucket for what the return on that is. Um
I know that Biji staff, the Biji library staff is passionate about what they do. I also know that they don't make a lot of money. But if these funds are cut, what are they going to live on to? What
resources are our kids, our young children need to have give up for this small budget cut in the big picture. So, I just would like to ask you to consider
that that offer and see if we can make this work and keep the library open and make it available to the families of your community. Thank you. >> Thank you.
>> Good evening. I've come um to this podium several times and shared passionately about the need for the funding for our library and um I'm a historical society member also and um I
am fortunate that I can afford a car and insurance and gas so I don't have to count on public transportation or a neighbor. >> Is it Pam? >> Yes. Pam Royer 1020230th Street Southeast Bamichi. >> Thank you for reminding me there. I was
here in the audience 2, three, four, five years ago. I don't know who were all commissioners then when the proposed cuts were being planned at that point. And at that point, we're able to um keep funding for the library. So, I'm not
sure all of what has happened. I know and I do appreciate uh Mr. Barry's um comments about the um shifting of funds and there's no doubt that that's going to continue. Uh that doesn't mean though
in my perspective that that's what we need to do to put it on the back of the library. Um, so it would seem to me that there's an element of um value not placed upon
um the services that the library has. Um, in defense of that, I've also read because I do read quite a bit obviously that um it's not in the legislative agenda that this commission has to
influence the uh state to provide more money for libraries. There are many uh things that have been listed through time um in the paperwork that the board sends
out um which I very much appreciate um but I haven't seen any come forward to um make some changes. So to me it's like um
the prover proverbial brick wall. You've seen people come in every two weeks for a variety of time. You've for those of you who are on the county board um several years ago you saw that
citizens wanted to keep the funding for the library. Um I also feel strongly that we have money on the table and as a citizen I and on my own personal finances I tend
not to leave money on the table. I tend to look at and I haven't seen any movement at all from the board. I mean it at le unless there's something happening behind the scenes, nothing has been put forward to make any
changes, any kind of solutions to what citizens are saying to you. And I speak strongly because there are many citizens who don't have
the time or opportunity to come forward even though they might value the library. Um I know that there are a lot of unfunded mandates and that there are shifting of
funds. I know that that happens. But then if the if there's value to the library then I would think that that would be on your list of things that to address at the state. I haven't seen
that put forward at all. Um, I um looked at my taxes and um it seems to me that the purpose of a tax is to share
the burden. And so as a member and a citizen of our county, I strongly support sharing the burden of uh taxation for our roads. um our infrastructure
um and a library. Um I think that will be it. Thank you for your time and for the kind reminder to say my name. >> Thank you, P. Anyone else that would wish to speak
tonight? Good evening. Um, I'm State Representative Bedel Duran. Um, I just want to come here and express my concerns for the uh uh county's budget. Um,
I am actually fearful that it's it's not going to be enough. Um, when we are projected for a $6 billion deficit in the state of Minnesota, how are we going to as a state of Minnesota
pull back that money? Where's that money going to come from? How are we going to do this? I am concerned that it's going to come on the backs of the counties and the cities.
The two 2023 2024 bianium will go down in history as one of the worst bianiums that could affect our our state. Not only the mandates that are are pushed on our counties and our
municipalities, not only this, but our school boards and everything else. It has drastically impact our community more than we can ever know. We don't know the full extent of how this is going to affect us. We don't
we have no clue how bad it is going to get yet. And that's a concern of mine. I'm a resident of this county. My taxes are going up just like everybody else's. But I am concerned.
I am concerned it's not enough because the state of Minnesota is going to come down on us and going to want that money back. Where is it going to come from? Is it going to come from Health and Human Services? Is it going to come from our schools?
There's the biggest budget. These are some of the things that we need to pay attention to. I don't think a lot of people are under understanding that these mandates from the state of Minnesota, not only do I believe they're government
overreach, just like the paid family medical leave, but they're putting a lot more burden on a place just like El Tramy County when we only have 25% of our land that's taxable. We're the second poorest county in the
state. that makes us unique that we are the only one in that position. I am more concerned now than ever that we have not felt the full pain of what the state of Minnesota has done to
us. And it is my goal as your representative to inform you of some of the goods and the bads that are happening within the state of Minnesota. And right now we're talking about budgets. We're talking about monies. We're talking about our livelihoods.
And it's concerning. It's really concerning because I'm going to try hard to try to bring all the resources I possibly can to this area. But I will not succeed at all. But I'm going to fight. I'm going to try to figure out if
there's carveouts that we can do for the state of Minnesota for us. I've already been chirping at as many legislators as I can that we are unique up here. These are things that the community needs to know and understand.
I doubt that there's any one of you guys sitting in these seats right now that just love to raise our taxes. We're one of the highest burden tax counties in the state. That doesn't do good for us to bring businesses in to people to want to
invest in us. What about housing? I just sat at a housing summit this whole time. You guess what they asked for? Money. Guess what? The state of Minnesota does not have money. Guess what? Everybody else in this room
is asking for money. Save our money. Help us. But there's only so much you guys can do, and I understand that the state of Minnesota has put us in a tough spot. And I'm and I'm fearing that it's only
going to get worse because where are we going to get the money from the $6 billion deficit that we're projected at? I I can tell you 100% that there are people down in St. Paul
that want to raise your taxes again to get out of the mess that they put themselves into. That's what we're looking at, guys. That's what's in our future that we have people that want to continuously keep raising our taxes
to try to get us out of a mess instead of raining things back in being fiscally responsible. It just feels like we want to push more people out of the state of Minnesota. Now, I've been in contact with most of you guys, and you guys know that I'm
here to support you guys in any way that we possibly can, and I'm going to try to bring some resources to us as much as I possibly can. But that's tough because now I'm going to be up against individuals down there that want to raise taxes and I want to
cut them. I'm trying to find a way to put more money in everybody's pocket. And then there's a a group that wants to take your money. We need to start paying attention to what
is going on in the state of Minnesota. the trends that are going on in the state of Minnesota, the direction that we're going in the Minnesota right now from the current administration. There is no way no way for us to see
what is going to be projected to try to pull this money back to get us out of a deficit. And it's going to be tough. It's going to be tough on everybody inside this room. But the problem is it might be tougher on you guys because you guys might have
to make some more tough decisions based on actions that weren't yours based on actions that were done by St. Paul. If we want to complain, if we want our voices heard,
we're not necessarily looking at the right people, are we? So I would recommend to a lot of the people that are concerned about where these cuts are coming from. I'd be concerned on where
the cuts are coming going to be coming from in the future as well. $6 billion deficit. That's what we're projected at for the state of Minnesota. County administrator just said there was $1 billion in tax increases in the whole
state of Minnesota. Oh, we got five more to go. I doubt that the I doubt that 1 million is even going to do anything. or 1 billion because we continue to spend, we continue to waste our money.
We have fraud that is rampant in our services, especially in health and human services. What do you think is going to happen to get that under control? We got to clamp down somewhere. Is that going to put a burden on us?
Is that is that going to be worse on us when we can't get money from the state of Minnesota for health and human services because we don't have it? These are all things that we need to think about. So, I thank you guys uh for letting me
speak here. And if you guys have a way that we can help out Belchammy County, just let me know. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Anybody else wish to speak tonight? >> Good evening, guys. My name is Joe Nip, 28733 Everz Road Northeast.
in the paper about the new jail and you said what cost you had to absorb. I thought all that new jail was on sales tax stuff. >> It is. >> And what was the rule chain from the state? You said you had to have a rule change
from the state level. >> I'm not sure what he's referring to there. Mr. very >> I'm not really sure exactly what you're referring to, but um unless you're talking about the reasons behind the county having to build a new jail. Is that what you're referring to? >> No, it just said in the I don't know if
a while ago when you had it about the proposed taxes and all your increases you had the new jail and what costs were absorbed. It's like what costs did you have to absorb? The county had to absorb. I >> I guess I could speak with you offline because I'm not really sure what you're
referring to and I want to make sure I get you the right answer. Okay. >> And then you said, like you said, only a quarter of the county is taxable, >> right? >> I mean, you got to find a way to increase that, >> right? >> I mean, sell some land. Do I mean, do something. I mean, I can't keep
increasing my taxes every year. I mean, just then you said a quarter of the county is in poverty. I mean, we're in one of the lowest all that stuff. And another thing I'm just trying to figure out,
not races or nothing, but some I'm just trying to figure out why does the county have to put money into the reservation if you're a closed reservation and a sovereign nation you're claiming. I'm just trying to figure out to my
knowledge that means you're all by yourself. Why does the county have that should be federal money? Just >> Mr. Chair. >> Yep. >> I guess I'm not too sure
uh if we're able to respond to, you know, constituents or or citizens uh during this time. Um, but I'm kind of curious to know which money is going to
the reservation because it's my understanding that a lot of money from the reservation is coming to Bumiji and Belrami County. Uh this past week uh the Red Lake uh tribe has
distributed $3.5 million to tribal members which majority of that money is probably coming to Bumiji. I don't see Bel Tramy County pumping that type of
revenue money into the tribe. So, we can we can discuss this uh however you want. Uh so, I'm just kind of curious. Uh the tribes um
pay taxes. They are large employers. Uh I know for Red Lake, their payroll is well over hund00 million. So I I bet you more than
50% of that money comes down here. So I'm I'm kind of curious to know where you're coming from with what you're >> Mr. Sar maybe you could have a a constituent of yours. Maybe you could get in more detail with public
>> hearing and he wants to know. So I'm curious as well. Yeah. Then I just I don't know probably we should just talk between you and me about this next thing I have about res.
>> Okay. Well, I'll bring this up too. Um, like I said, I live 5 miles from the reservation. I'm a farmer and I got a deal with Shiners starting October 27th to the end of deer season
and it's all reservation cuz I chase them and they all head back to the res. They drive right on my fields. They shoot my the deer and I got cattle around and the DNR they trying to do it and
they say they can't do nothing and your DNR up there your conservation officers will not help because if they could help they'd be sitting at the border when they come in there they get them. And I found out this year you have a big
buck contest up there. I don't know if you know anything about that. And you know where the funds come for that big buck contest you're putting on from the chemical dependency program. Now how does chemical dependency program
funds go to sponsor a buck contest? You can all look it on your phones and everything. It's all on your phones. It shows everybody that gets a deer every night. They pose with them. They weigh them and everything. And I know darn
well that hardly any percent of them deer come off the res come on the reservation. They're all coming from off the reservation. That's just my opinion. You want a public let the public know. >> Yes. I I would like some some factual
information about how the the deer could, you know, come from off the reservation for for this contest. >> Well, you know what? serious to know if you have contacted law enforcement in regards to shiners because that uh uh I
I question that as well. Um I have concerns that you are concerned about our treaty rights and our ability to hunt and fish and gather. >> Not on my land. >> Yeah. Commissioner Sumar and and Joe
respectfully ask you guys to to take this offline. This is not gerine to our our property tax uh meeting at this point. Thank you. >> Is there anybody else that would like to talk about the property tax and levy um
at the meeting tonight? Anybody else that wants to talk about the or speak to that? And one final time, anybody else that wants to speak to the property tax and levy? Oh, I have one more personnel coming up. Thank you.
>> I appreciate your taking the time for this. My name is Lois Egelhoff. I live at 6879 Belt Tremy Line Road, Southwest Bamiji, Minnesota. And my concern primarily is the library. And that is
because I'm a former researcher, research librarian, Washington DC, international organizations. I come here, I'm so happy to see all the different people that are allowed to
come to the library from different backgrounds, different interests. they don't have a computer or their little kid doesn't have something and the library is open and they can use it. They don't have to go buy a computer.
They don't have to put their kid in special place to learn extra. Um, and it worries me that of all the things to cut or to cut back on, it would be something
that is open to everyone. Not everyone can use all of the other facilities, but anybody and everybody is always welcome at the library and they're helped. And I have heard in our library,
our librarians answering some amazing questions and helping the little old lady who doesn't know how to go online to find family research, or the little kid who doesn't have a computer at home, but the teacher says they really have to
do this. Or just somebody who wants to look at a book or find more information. And when I've gone in and said, "Do you have this book?" And I'll look for it. And if I don't find it, they can find it and get
it through interl loan. It's not just the building, it's the people in the building, and that they are helping all of our constituents. And I would just hope that if money is
put anywhere in this county, it would be put to a place that is open to all, helpful to all, and friendly to all. Thank you. >> Thank you, Lois. Is there anyone else that would like to
speak tonight? Seeing none, I'm asked three times. So, at this time, I would look for a motion to close the public hearing. >> So, moved. >> Motion by Commissioner Carlson to close the public hearing. Do I hear a second?
>> Second. >> Second by Commissioner Winger. Any further discussion on closing the public hearing? Hearing none. All in favor of closing the public hearing on items A and B say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carried.
And now bring it up for debate amongst the board. Mr. Chair, I would actually like to move adoption of the 2026 budget and levy as presented with the following modifications.
Add $173,000 for Baiji and Black Duck Libraries via KRLS. Add 7,500 for uh Belrammy County Historical Society. and add 7,500 for Paul Bunan Transit. The funds can come
from salary savings, ARPA reserves, or the commissioner's contingency fund, or a combination of at the best judgment of the county administrator. This is the uh this is just under the 3% increase request that KLS
uh initially uh requested this summer. Um that is my motion and I'd appreciate a roll call. We have a second. Yes, >> we have a motion on the floor. Is there a second? >> Is there a second?
And the third time. Is there a second to that motion? Hearing none. The motion dies for lack of a second. Commissioner Carlson. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would move that we approve the fisc year 2026 budget resolution and the fiscal year 2026
property tax levy resolution as presented. >> Thank you, Commissioner Carlson. Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Second by Commissioner Winger. Further discussion. >> Mr. Chair, I'd like to offer an amendment. Uh move to amend the motion.
Add 173,000 for Baiji and Black Duck libraries via KLS. Add 7500 for Bel Tramy County Historical Society and add 7500 for Paul Bunan Transit. Again, the funds can come from the salary savings
ARPA reserves commissioners contingency fund or a combination of at the best judgment of the county administrator. This would um allow KRLS reserves to kick in the $36,000 that they uh agreed
to take um from which was going to be the 27 budget next year and apply it towards this year. >> Is there a second to Commissioner Gold's amendment? I hear a second to Commissioner Gold's
amendment and a third time. Do I hear a second to Commissioner Gold's amendment? Hearing none, the amendment fails for lack of a second. Any further discussion on the original motion to approve the tax levy and
proposed budget for as proposed for 2026? >> Mr. Chair, I'd like to offer an amendment. >> Commissioner Sumar. >> Well, Mr. Chair, I'm just kind of curious has I don't know if you know or if our board member knows uh to the
KRLs. Um it has been mentioned several times that we are using the minimum maintenance uh mandated funding from 2009 to 2011 numbers. Has the KRLS board
approached the legislature to possibly increase that minimum maintenance mandate? >> Yes, they do that every year. >> They do. Okay. And it >> hasn't been increased since then. >> It hasn't. No.
So, is there is there something we can do here at the that the county? Um, I know that we have what like 20ome priorities already. Can is there some way that we can uh offer some sort of of
help or assistance to to possibly increase that? I mean, >> I would personally prefer to have it not be an increased mandate. We already have enough unfunded mandates. I would like to see it be increase in a in via a
grant or actually have the state chip into the library surface instead of it be just more mandates on unfunded mandates on the county. So anyhow >> could help the uh Minnesota Library Association in their advocacy efforts.
You know they they're the ones that primarily ask for that formula to be increased every budget year. And also another thing was um the the library who is responsible
overseas the the KRLS is it >> Minnesota Department or or is it is it the county board or is it the KRLS board? I'm I'm not too sure who oversees >> well branch.
KLS is the >> the main >> is the main thing, but they are accountable to MDE. Okay. >> Department Minnesota Department of Education. >> Okay. >> Do you have anything further, Commissioner Summer? Well,
um I know we've been talking about the library for for you know quite some time, the budget for quite some time and and you know I mean this is this has been a tough tough year, tough budget, you know, and it
it's something that, you know, I I've lost, you know, sleep while we're trying to figure out, you know, what can I do to help or how can we help or or what can we do to knowing you know our financial situation
I I remember uh during the uh prime uh the pre criminary I I asked you know my colleagues here you know just to stay under the the 10% you know for a 9.99 um and and it didn't seem like it was
enough you know from from you know the audience at the time and then for them to come back with the $81,000 offer. Um I just wish there was a way that we could help. You know, I I um
it was mentioned that it seems like we didn't really do nothing. you know, we we've heard from the public and and that's one thing that I have concerns with and and continue to go back and forth about, you know, which way I'm going to vote because we haven't we
haven't discussed this. You know, we we've heard from the public, but there was no action. There was no conversation or at least I'm aware of of, you know, is there anything that we can do?
So, it's kind of concerning that, you know, once the preliminary is passed, that's kind of it. You know, that there's no more conversation. And it shouldn't be that way. You know,
we should, you know, have conversations in between the preliminary and tonight, you know, to see if there are possibilities. You know, I know that there are reserves and contingency funds.
But it doesn't make sense to use these onetime monies on ongoing operations. And I mentioned a month or so ago, you know, hopefully next year we can have deeper conversations about how
to address these things. It it bothers me that we didn't talk about it. It's like we're giving, you know, our our public, our our citizens false hope that we are doing something,
but in reality, we're not. That's it's disappointing. So, I'm I'm hopeful next year that we can, you know, have these conversations because it sounds like, you know, we're going to be having even more difficult decisions to make
next year. Well, tonight's the budget meeting. We're we're talking about it right now. >> Go ahead, Commissioner. >> Um, thank you, Mr. Chair. We've we've heard like you said from hundreds of constituents since September
and we heard from the chamber and and uh HRDC and and uh greater Baiji at our last meeting how we have to have quality public amenities if people are going to move here. If we're going to have any chance at expanding
the tax base, we have to be able to offer services to our constituents. This budget does a disservice to our constituents. Uh we've we've heard from so many people that need this service that want this service. Um
so offer offer the amendment. Uh you mentioned the $81,000. Uh, Commissioner Sumar, uh, the meet me halfway option. Um, is there an appetite for that? Uh, you
know, uh, I I would still like to, um, make a motion for the halfway, meet me halfway option, $81,000, uh, but still support uh, Bel Tramy County Historical Society and and Paul Bunnyan Transit. We
have the funding. We have the money. We have millions of dollars that we can take from and not to the detriment of any other department. Um it it just seems asinine to me that we have the funding so let's do it.
We're we're looking at a budget surplus tonight. We're not looking at a budget deficit. We're looking at a we're looking at a balanced budget that has that has a surplus actually. So, um, we should be doing the right thing here
and at least considering the $81,000 meet me halfway option. So, I I would like to move to amend the motion to include an additional $81,000 for Bijian Black Duck
Libraries via KRLS, 7,500 for BCHS, and 7,500 for Paul Bunan Transit. Um, again, the money can come from any of these four areas. Salary savings, ARPA,
reserves, or the commissioner's contingency fund, or a combination of at the best judgment of the county administrator. >> Is there a second to that motion? Is there a second to the motion? Is there a second to the motion?
Hearing no second. The motion dies for lack of a second. >> Mr. Chair, I'd like to move to amend the motion >> an amendment >> for us to use all of contingency. >> Add $44,000 for Baiji and Black Duck
libraries via KLS. Add 7,500 for Bumiji uh Bel Tramy Historical Society and 7,500 for Paul Bunan Transit. The funds can come from salary savings, ARPA reserves, or the
commissioner's contingency fund, or a combination of at the best judgment of the county administrator. This is minimal funding for operational survival. Is there a second to that motion?
Is there a second? Is there a second to the motion? Hearing none, the motion fails for lack of a second. >> Mr. Chair, call a question. Question has been called. Um, do we need a second to the calling of
the question? No. So, we will do a roll call vote. Commissioner Carlson, >> yes. >> Commissioner Gould? >> Absolutely. No. >> Commissioner Winger? >> Yes. >> Commissioner Sumar? >> Yes.
>> And I vote yes. The motion passes 4 to one. So that is the first two items on the public hearing items A and B. Uh so now we will be
on to item C but we'll take a a quick break prior to the next motion for restroom break. So we'll get back uh at 7:40 here. Okay, it's 7:40.
>> Get back. We good to go, Diane? Y' >> um so now I would request a motion to open a public hearing for the adoption of the 2026 fee schedule. Do I hear such a motion? >> So moved. >> Motion by Commissioner Carlson. Do I hear a second? >> Second. >> Second by Commissioner Winger. All in
favor of opening the public hearing for the adoption of the 2026 fee schedule say I. >> I. Any opposed? >> Motion carries. 5 Z. >> All right. So, at this time, do we have anything from the staff? Uh,
Administrator Barry, please present. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Commissioners, uh, you've had the fee schedule in front of you a few times, uh, dating back to the preliminary budget times, but, uh, there's three modifications that I wanted to bring to your attention. Um,
and I'll reference the fee schedule in your packet, uh, and the page numbers here in just a moment. But before we get into those particular details, uh just as a highle summary, I just wanted to remind the board that um yes, we are
moving the fee schedule process up so that it gets incorporated with the budget process. And and the reason we want to do that is so that we can align the fees and the projected revenues or lack thereof um with the actual budget. uh by having the two processes run
concurrently, we're able to better predict and then better budget uh according to whatever the fee schedule uh is going to be um set at. So, um any event, a couple goals with the fee schedule and we we try to keep fees low
as much as we can. We recognize that a fee is kind of a lot of people say a fee is nothing other than a tax disguised as a different thing, right? So, we we we get that. Um but fees are really for specific services that people come in and uh acquire from say our county
government. Um a permit is a great example of a fee, right? Um and so uh we want to make sure that our fees are keeping pace with inflation so that we don't get too far behind and then one day 10 years into the future we have to raise our fee by 200% because we didn't
keep track of it. And in the interim, we've subsidized those fees with other revenue sources. So, one of the things is we want to make sure fees are keeping pace with inflation. That fees are in line with actual costs. And we've talked a lot about this internally in the
county about making sure we do what we can where we can cover the cost of the service in the fee for the service. Right? That's really important. Uh and what that does is it essentially helps us reduce or avoid
property tax subsidiate subsidi oh no subsidi subsidization sorry and so um you know the more we can get a service that's independent and benefits one person paid for by that one person the less we have to rely on taxes
to backfill that service if it's not adequately uh charged. So that's another thing and then of course uh our attempt is also every time we get another bite at this uh we want to make sure that we have consistency in the fees uh you know it doesn't make sense for one department
to charge 25 cents for a copy and another department to charge 5 cents right I mean what what is the sense in that we need to be be consistent in the way that we apply the fees so you'll see a lot of changes kind of in all of those themes that I wanted to just mention so um the three fee adjustments that I
wanted to bring to your attention specifically on page 61 of your board packet. Um, and it's highlighted in yellow. We So, we we identified it inside your packet, but I just want you to know like I want to draw your attention to it because um even though it's in in the
packet, it's not something you may have noticed. Um, but the NSF fee uh uh per statute maximum for $30, there was an attempt to raise that to $50, but there's a statutory limit on that. So,
we're just going to strike that. We're not going to go with the $50. We're just going to do the limit uh of 30. And so, that essentially is a no change. Uh so, there's no change on that. And if you go to page 69, uh the grant administration, this is something we've talked a lot
about internally. There is um so it's in the middle of the page there, grant administration. So, as as you know, the county ends up being the fiscal agent for a lot of other organizations. Um, and there can be significant costs
in administering grants on behalf of other organizations. And, uh, as we have identified those costs, we have realized that they're they're not covering the cost to actually administer the grants on behalf of other people. So, uh, we
are proposing an adjustment there that would also include a $100 per hour minimum or $3,000 maximum of the 10 10 of maximum of 10% of the grant. And, uh, we've run those numbers. Uh, Mr. Hasbar and I have talked about this before in
particular for for other jurisdictions. And we think that's fair based upon the cost of providing the service, the reporting, the administration, the uh financial uh oversight and administration, all of that sort of stuff. So, uh so that's just an addition
that we wanted to put on there. Uh and then lastly, there is a a slight error in a reference and um that is on page 70 under the handgun permits. Um it is referenced here that um under
new permit it says veteran new permit or renewal. Um but then under that in parenthesis it says DD 213 required for verification >> and we should say do4 right so that's not gerine to the fee or any of that kind of stuff but we want to reference
the correct form. Uh so those are the three adjustments that I uh apologize for but wanted to draw to your attention uh as you consider the fee schedule. And with that I'll stand for any questions you might have. >> Does anybody have any questions for Administrator Barry?
>> Seeing none. Thank you Administrator Barry. >> Thank you sir. >> At this time we'll open it up for for public comment. If there's anybody that would like to make public comment on the fee schedule now would be the time to come forward. And I'll ask again, is there any anybody would like to make a public comment on
the fee schedule? I'm assuming nobody's online, Diane. And uh I'll ask a third time for public comment. And seeing no public comment, we'll uh close the public comment section and um
look for a motion to close the public hearing. So moved. >> Motion by Commissioner Carlson. Do I hear a second? Second. >> Second by Commissioner Wer. All in favor of closing the public hearing on the fee schedule say I.
>> I. Any opposed? All right. The public hearing is closed on the fee schedule and I will bring it back for debate or a motion to approve the fee schedule as presented with the changes. Commissioner Carlson. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that we adopt the 2026 fee schedule as proposed.
>> Thank you, Commissioner Carlson. Do I hear a second? Second. Second by Commissioner Winger. Any further discussion on the 2026 proposed fee schedule? >> Commissioner Google >> like to move to amend motion
to include waving new building permit, conditional use permit, and entrance permit fees for 2026 to support individuals and developers in expanding the tax base. >> Is there a second to that motion?
Sorry. >> New building permits, conditional use permits, and entrance permits. >> The fees for those page is that on the fee schedule. between page one and 25.
>> Uh it's like page six, environmental services building permit sheet. Page seven, conditional use permit. And H8, entrance permit.
Commission. >> Yep. Thank you. >> Question on that. Um, do we know if there's any state limits on on any of that? because there are some things that say that you can only charge so much for certain things. So, um is there any
restriction? I don't know what the maximum is, but this bring all three of them down to zero, >> which would negatively affect those departments budgets, and I I'm not in favor of doing it, but
yeah, that would substantially affect the budget and I don't think it would generate any additional revenue or any additional point of >> order. Yeah, Commissioner Cson. >> Uh, we haven't had a second yet, so let's not have any discussion till we get a second. If we >> Good point, Commissioner Carlson. Is there a second to the motion?
Is there a second to the motion? >> And third, is there a second to the motion? Hearing none. And motion dies for lack of a second. Oh, I'll call the question there. No further discussion. All in favor of say of
approving the 2026 fee schedule, say I. I. Any opposed? I >> motion passes 4 to one. Um so that uh that ends that topic. So now I'd look for a motion to
open the public hearing for the adoption of the transportation improvement plan for 2026. Actually, it's for several years. Got a motion by Commissioner Carlson. Do I hear a second? >> Second by Commissioner Winger. All in favor of opening the public hearing for
the adoption of the transportation improvement plan say I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes. And I see Bruce is already coming around with a a little bigger version for us to see. Don't have to get like >> Yeah.
Thank you. >> Anybody that wants one or And then there have a big fiveear plan spreadsheet and then actually the fiveear plan on the county
website that's in a different format and then the map. >> Awesome. >> And it's in color too. It helps to be in color though when the >> go ahead, Bruce. >> I like to work off the big 11 by7
spreadsheet. That's what I've shared with the the board as the preliminary five-year plan. Um just for the board, there's no changes from what was proposed in that preliminary 5-year uh plan. Um for
everybody else, the there is a color coding to the to the spreadsheet. Uh yellow is a brand new project that is being proposed. Um we get grants. Uh new projects are added to the five-year plan. And so I like to highlight them so that we can see what is what is new in
that five-year plan. So anything new is in yellow, orange, uh those are projects that were in the previous five-year plan, but the year is changing. So either we're moving them back, moving them forward. Um over on the far right hand side in the notes, it'll tell you
what year it was in prior. Um but so the orange ones, orange projects are uh previously in there just changing what year they're happening in. gray. Gray are projects that were approved in the county's um local option sales tax uh
project list. Uh so we can keep track of uh which projects are eligible to be used with that funding as we go forward. And so projects in gray are are lost eligible. And so then the rest of them if they're no color uh they're just uh there's no change or no nothing special
with those um projects. Um, I guess I couple of highlights. I'm not going to go through each five year or each year of the five-year plan for you, but uh um again, we have some uh grants that we've
received. So, there's some new projects that have been added. Um this next year, uh continuing the trail from the high school out to Gene Dylan. Um we're working on those find finishing up those plans, but that's a grant that we received. That is a state grant. Um and
then uh we received some funding for our project on the north side of the lake. Um state park road account uh funding. Uh that was a new grant. Uh we had previous uh uh state grant the local road improvement program had 1.5 million
for that. And then uh um the projects we're moving that project on the north side lake on 20 um was initially in this year. We're moving it to next year and that also is uh kind of sitting here
waiting to see if it's going to be city or township uh sewer services. And so we're kind of working with both sides um with them on that one. But that project is is being pushed and planned for for next year. The other huge project for us
is the reconstruction of 22 from Urban Avenue from 15 over to Highway 71. And that is a that is a 910 million project for us. We'll see how the bids come in. So that hopefully uh comes in way lower and big savings,
but uh that is a huge that'll be a huge grading project for us. Um >> Bruce, could you speak to that? the pedestrian bridge on the Mississippi there on on county 39. Um I can't it's part of it's cut off there. It shows mo
move from 2025 2023 tap funds and then it's cut off after that. Um I didn't recall that we had other than engineering services from the county standpoint. I didn't recall that we had any actual funds other than that in it.
Is that is the dollar amount in here? Is that um reflective of of engineering costs or did we approve something different there? >> So those uh that is the full project cost uh estimate cost for construction
including engineering. Um there's a federal grant of the 600 and that the 200 that is over to the right, >> right, >> is the ILRB
um funds that are helping be the the match to that federal grant. >> Okay. Um, and so it's not it's not uh local funds, but it's that >> I wasn't sure what that other was, and I just want to >> Yeah. confirm that >> the the scenic byway group, the lace
slipper scenic byway group worked hard to one get the federal grant and then to try to find those those matching dollars that are required of those of those federal grants and and uh we're able to to to get that and it has been extended
and extended as this project kind of keeps getting moved. Um >> there was an archaeological thing most recently, wasn't there? Did that get resolved yet? Not yet. >> No. Um but on that the last time I talked to the board is um there was the
going to be the cost of doing that study and that grant from the ILRB um came back and said that that would be an eligible cost and so we will be able to conduct that study using those funds.
>> Um but it didn't happen this >> okay >> fall before. >> Okay. Thanks for the update on that. I don't want to belabor things. running pretty late as well so >> but so yeah those are the big projects for next year. Um the other big changes
again just for the public um there is a bunch of projects being added in the fourth year. Um that being because uh the projects that are in the fifth year are being extended out to keep them in that same fifth year. Um
the big project is on County Stadium Highway 21 Biji Avenue. Uh we are starting to develop that project, but really we're looking for grants. We're applying for some federal grants to help with that. Another again another big expensive project. So we're trying to
find grants. And so I'm going to say that's kind of grant dependent. And so we keep that in the five-year plan but keep it in the fifth year. So that opens up what had been in the last five year, fifth year is now our fourth year. And so that opened up uh the possibility for
doing a bunch of projects. And there's a long list of projects there. And we're getting to a whole bunch of roads that have uh poor surface condition. And uh it's really going to be a a good year to get through a lot of our poor roads um
with all those projects that we got planned that that year. a lot of smaller projects. So, it's a it's a lot of projects, but those are all new being added to that five-year plan. Guess those are kind of my highlights I wanted to bring up.
>> Okay. Does anybody have any initial comments or questions for Commissioner Gold? >> Is there anything in here on that Roosevelt Road and Albany Drive Southeast intersection? >> No.
Nope. >> I'm asking for >> the the we keep trying >> the best opportunity for that um is GR with with any of our big projects is grants
and uh for that one there that would be our safety project like we uh started talking about today. Uh the big funding source for that is the highway safety improvement program. That's federal dollars. That's what we're using to do
the the next roundabout that we've got coming at uh our six and 11 Adams and 15th Street. Uh that's what we did there. Uh we had that project in our our county road safety plan and then applied for and was successful and got some that
Hep funding for that one. So that's what I guess I where I'm kind of hoping we can go with that intersection. It is it does have some some safety concerns with the the skew of the intersection there and and uh a roundabout would be a good
solution for that one. But uh the county road safety plan or our again whatever it is called now safety action plan um is going to be the best opportunity for us to get that in there and then we can start applying for some grants. >> Commissioner Carlson.
>> Thank you Mr. Chair. I just wanted to note, Commissioner Summer, I'm glad to see that your roads finally getting done in 2027. >> We're getting closer and closer each year. >> All right. Any other questions for Bruce >> Commissioner Winger? Sure.
>> Um, we talked about that little stretch there on Balsam. Is that in the fiveyear or in this fiveyear? >> It is not. >> Okay. >> Yeah. I recently re responded to a concerned individual that uses that road
and uh kind of explained that uh there would be some needed upgrades to the road before we can surface it. Uh and right now it's not in the 5-year plan, but if I'm looking out 10 years, it's it's in the
10-year plan. And I it's I'm gonna say at the higher of the list for projects for me uh just because it is a highmaintenance gravel road for us and so it would be nice to get that one surfaced. >> Okay. >> Thank you, >> Commissioner Carlson. >> Uh thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that we
approve the transportation improvement. >> We We got to have public comment first. I think we haven't done public comment yet. So, >> sorry. I was just thinking it was how late it was. >> Jeez. No, I we'll we'll get darn. Okay. >> Thanks, Bruce.
>> No, no further questions from for Bruce. So, we'll open it up for public comment. Is there anybody that would like to comment on the transportation improvement plan for 2026? Seeing nobody, I'll ask again. Or if there's anybody would like to comment on the transportation improvement plan. And
seeing nothing, I'll ask a third time if there's anybody that wants to comment on the transportation improvement plan. And seeing none, I will close the com close the public comment period and ask for a motion to close the public hearing on the transportation improvement plan. >> So moved. >> Motion by Commissioner Carlson. Do I
hear a second? >> Second. >> Second by Commissioner Winger. All in favor of closing the public comment or the the public hearing for the transportation improvement plan for 2026, please say I. I. >> I. Any opposed?
>> That motion carries. 5. So the it is closed. Now I would entertain a motion for the transportation improvement plan. >> Mr. Chair, I would move that we approve the transportation improvement plan as proposed. >> Thank you, Commissioner Carlson. Do I hear a second?
Second by Commissioner Winger. Any further discussion on the transportation improvement plan? Hearing none. All in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? >> I. >> Uh 4 to one. Thank you.
That passes and that is it for our public hearing items. So I look for a motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn by Commissioner Gould. Do I hear a second? Second by Commissioner Carlson. All in favor of adjourning say I. I. Any
opposed and stay. Thank you.