County commissioners have big task ahead – to cut $2 million out of proposed budget, taking expenditure increase from 26% down to 2%

YORK COUNTY – Now that all the elected officials and department heads have weighed in with their preliminary figures for the 2025-26 budget, the York County Commissioners have a big task ahead. They need to cut $2 million out of proposed spending.

​York County Commissioner Chairman Randy Obermier explained how last year’s taxing was $7 million. The way the preliminary budget sits, right now, based on proposals from department heads and elected officials, the tax asking is $9 million.
“We are talking a 26% increase over last year’s budget and the state wants us at 2%,” Obermier told his fellow county board members. “We are a long way apart. The budget committee met again this past week and we asked all the county officials and department heads to hold their budgets to a 2-3% increase, but the information we got back – we have a long way to go to get there.”
This past week, the county commissioners went through each department’s proposed budget and in some cases had conversations with the department heads during the public session.
“We took a crack at the numbers sent in and we reached out to department heads, sharing what we were seeing,” said Commissioner Daniel Grotz, who also sits on the budget committee. “We asked for resubmittal of budgets where they were exceeding a 3% increase over last year’s budget. Some responded with lower numbers. But obviously, looking at this, we have our work cut out for us to cut this spending down. There is no way we can pass this budget, in its current form. Now comes the fun part, to go through and see where we can work with officials to carve out close to $2 million.”
“We could pass it in its current form but it would be more work for the clerk’s office because there would then be more recalls out there,” Obermier said. “The assessments will not be certified until Aug. 20 – but it looks like the valuation in the county has gone up considerably, a huge increase. So the levy will have to go down and therefore the budget has to come down. We had the largest number of valuation protests this year, well for as long as I’ve been around, and we heard time and again the same thing. For the newer members on the board, we don’t control our elected officials’ line items other than the bottom line. The department heads we do control. We have ability to comment on all of them. And I don’t think holding them to a 3% increase limit is creating a hardship for them to do their jobs. We have some elected officials and department heads here, does anyone want to speak?”
York County Attorney Gary Olson said he realizes his proposed 32% increase in spending “is significant,” but he said the juvenile case filing rate in York County “per capita is highest in the state.” And “York County is unique with the interstate as with the influx of travelers comes human behavior. And the sheriff’s department, police department, my office, the jail, we bear the weight of that. I want to make clear the numbers reflect that. I might be able to come up with some savings. I understand your position is difficult.”
Captain Josh Gillespie from the York County Sheriff’s Office noted how they were asking for a little additional funding for uniforms “as they are getting more expensive and more for training fees as the state now requires everyone to have more hours of training. We have been hosting more training sessions here which is cheaper than traveling elsewhere. Insurance went up 11% and when it comes to the budget, we are still only cycling out one vehicle when we need to rotate out three.
“When it comes to the corrections budget, we want to be competitive with wages and we are still behind our main (employment) competitor, the state,” Gillespie said. “We proposed a little raise for corrections staff. We need to retain our people and we are finally at full staff there. In both budgets, we got close to the 3% increase, at only 3.8% and we are working toward that. We have been saving taxpayer money by using (drug funds) for vehicles but we need to plan for when and if it goes away.”
“The state is going to be hard to compete with (as far as wages paid to those working in state prisons),” Obermier said.
“We are $4 an hour behind and I’d like to try to close that gap some,” Gillespie said. “I’d argue also how what our people do here is more than what corrections officers are doing (at the prisons). We have good people and they are important to us, they are the backbone of what we do.”
“Every office could lobby to retain people,” Obermier said. “But I do understand your point.”
“And this is not just an issue in York County,” said Sheriff Paul Vrbka. “I was speaking with another sheriff who has also been having a really hard time hiring. We have really great staff and want to keep them.”
“The interstate is costing us a heck of a lot of money,” said Commissioner Andy Bowman who then suggested using lodging tax sales receipts to help fund the jail and the sheriff’s department.
“Well that would have to happen at the state level, to have that use changed, as the state has already determined how those funds can be used,” Obermier said.
“Well, it would be nice to access that as the cost of arresting and incarcerating people off the interstate shouldn’t be on the backs of York County,” Bowman said.
The commissioners talked about the burden of unfunded state mandates and how that causes a burden at the county level.
“We have enjoyed a robust inheritance fund and the drug money fund and the ARPA funds,” said Grotz. “To their point, mandated expenses – well, those aren’t going away but the sources of funding might and it’s not just about this year’s budget but all the budgets coming in the future.”
Lori Byers from aging services and public transit said the salaries in her departments have been the lowest of county wages for years and she is concerned about maintaining service to the citizens. “We are having state and federal cuts and we currently can’t always meet all their needs. We tried to stay as close as possible to your request, but I’d also prefer to not cut services.”
“We have raised wages for other departments more than for this one and we need look at those wages,” Obermier acknowledged.
Grotz said the roads department's proposed budget is “up considerably because of three proposed capital expenditures and we probably won’t approve all three, and keep in mind we have transferred money from the inheritance fund in the past to cap expenditures.” He said those three expenditures – a generator, a truck/trailer combo and a motorgrader – would cost a cumulative $890,000.
Obermier said he felt the generator should be a priority and Grotz said they could look at other funding sources (other than property tax) to pay for the other purchases.
“I’ve had people ask why we spend so much on motorgraders, well we are not buying Cadillacs, we are buying what we need and unfortunately, they cost a lot of money,” Grotz said.
Bowman asked York County Zoning Administrator Nate Heinz to speak to his proposed 54% increase in spending.
“The salary for this position hasn’t increased in decades and in looking at other counties, they are funding the zoning department at $60,000 and $70,000, double and triple what York County is paying,” Heinz said.
He also noted there have been major issues at hand, such as zoning for pipelines and solar projects.
“And it’s just me in this department,” Heinz said.
He is also a deputy county attorney here and in another county.
“You wear three hats and maybe more, this position has been more for you,” Obermier said to Heinz. “Is it realistic for you to continue to do zoning? Your boss talks about how busy things are. Does this board need to look at another person to do this, if your time is better spent in the courtroom? Does this need to be considered? I think it’s worth the conversation. We have had conversations about getting some help for you to measure and inspect projects, should we take someone from another department to help you? If you are good, we will deal with this budget.”
The conversation will continue as the budget process continues, while the board acknowledged the workload imposed on the zoning department in the last two years.
At this point in the hours-long budget workshop (the entire county commissioners’ meeting lasted four hours and 22 minutes), they went through each and every department’s preliminary requests.
For some departments, there weren’t significant conversations among the county board members because they weren’t asking for significant increases.
When it comes to health insurance, which now has its own fund, it was acknowledged there will likely be an increase although that won’t be known for a few months.
Regarding the county court, Obermier said, “We may have to look at this more due to the costs of court-appointed counsel. We earlier had to make a transfer (to cover expenses over budget).” It was acknowledged these expenses cannot be predicted and are completely out of local officials’ hands. So they are looking at a four-year average of costs attributed to court-appointed counsel to try to determine a reasonable budget for expenses in the coming year.
Pertaining to the public defender’s budget, it was noted there is still money in the budget for the hiring of a deputy although one has not worked within the department for several years. Public Defender Dave Michel said, “We do need a deputy and plan to hire one as the workload has increased substantially. I will delay hiring one until next May in order to meet your requirement. We will continue with myself and two assistants. I don’t plan to run again and the person would be in place when I discontinue working. We haven’t had a deputy for years which has resulted in about $218,000 in savings.”
“If we had a deputy would that have helped cut the costs of court-appointed counsel?” Obermier asked. Michel said no, as his office cannot take juvenile cases according to state law.
When it came to revenue funds, the county holds a $5 million balance in the inheritance fund, Obermier said. This is where the county takes money to pay entities such as the York County Development Corporation, Hope Crisis Center, the Kilgore Library, York Adopt A Pet, Blue Valley, Region V and others.
“Most of these entities have asked for more of an increase, at a percentage higher than what we asked the department heads to do,” Grotz said. “I don’t think we should allow them to have higher increases than what we want from the county departments.”
At the end of the long budget session, Grotz said, “Well, we have a lot of homework to do before our next meeting.”
“We know the preliminary budget has to be cut,” Obermier said. “We know there were some errors and those are corrected, but with the rest, do we just cut them all back to a 3% increase or do we wait and do it all publicly at the next meeting? I think the public are our bosses and they need to be part of the process.”
“With a few, we’ve lined up some conversations and I think some still need to be held publicly,” Grotz said. “We need to dig in and make this a leaner budget. We definitely need to get down to what is not a double-digit increase. I don’t want more than a 2% increase in the overall budget and we have a lot of cutting to do.”
“A huge percentage can be pulled out of roads (by funding with sources other than property tax dollars) and then the rest will come out in smaller pieces,” Obermier said.
Commissioner LeRoy Ott said, “The people who asked, the outside entities, for funds should not get bigger percentages of increases than our people.”
“I encourage everyone to decide where they want the budget to be,” Grotz added.
This conversation will continue at their next meeting as they work to cut spending.