Shaping the city’s 2026 budget gives Iola City Council members an overview each year of the city’s various departments, and a look ahead at what’s coming down the pike.
The city’s department heads presented their various proposed budgets at the Council’s July 14 and 28 meetings, in order for the city to finalize its 2026 spending plans at their Aug. 26 meeting.
The focus for each department head was to keep spending in check with this year, to the point “flat” became the catch phrase for the month, with most of any increases tied to salary raises or anticipated hikes for benefits and insurance.
The city’s administration team has been plugging those proposals into their final evaluations, paring what they can, in order to keep the tax burden in check for the upcoming year.
City Clerk Roxanne Hutton gave Council members a preliminary look at the overall budget Monday, anticipating total expenses at about $35.7 million, up about 3% or $1 million from this year’s budget.
If approved, the spending plan would be supported in part with an ad valorem tax levy of 58.8 mills, an increase of about .7 mills from 2025.
That means the owner of a $100,000 home would spend about $677 to support the city’s budget next year, an increase of about $8.
(Those figures do not account for property taxes to support the other entities, such as the county, Allen Community College or USD 257.)
As an aside, the city also is set to rely on transfers from the gas ($850,000), water ($220,000), electric ($2,800,00), sanitation ($87,000) and wastewater($120,000) utilities help supplement the general fund — a combined $3,312,000 — which otherwise would be funded through property taxes.
EACH DEPARTMENT head gave a brief overview of their spending plans for 2026.
— Sharon Moreland, Iola Public Library director, is seeking a slight increase of about $3,500 to $240,000 from property tax revenues.
She noted that since 2021, the library’s visits have risen 57%, while circulation has increased 44%.
The library has implemented changesr, including hiring an assistant director, to further strengthen IPL’s status as the home base for the Southeast Kansas Library System, Moreland said.
Her increases would go primarily for salaries. Moreland hopes to see a two-year salary readjustment to improve recruiting.
As an aside, she noted the library continues to own the Flewharty Powell home, which costs about $6,100 a year.
“If something happens to the house, or it goes away,” that obligation, too, would be dropped.
