The Franklin County Board of Supervisors continue to discuss the proposed fiscal year 2026 budget, but board chairman Chris Vanness says it’s not going to be an easy process.
Vanness recently took part in a board meeting of the North Iowa Community Action Agency, and says a majority of the supervisors taking part in that meeting from around the area remain concerned.
“Four of the five supervisors, one didn’t comment, but I don’t know how we’re probably all gonna have to use supplemental to balance out our budgets this year. And we’re all concerned about future possibilities. They’re talking more tax reform. How that’s gonna affect.”
Vanness says in his opinion, state lawmakers need to be more open to listening to concerns from the counties, especially in rural parts of Iowa.
“Seemed to be common. All the supervisors involved say it’s hard to talk to our representatives at the state. It wasn’t just our district. We heard that quite a lot at one point. And again, it’s always brought up how they did this thing that affected 99 counties and there’s a lot of difference from the difference in the counties and cities in our state. How there needs to be difference for like counties like ours, you know, smaller rural counties that are not growing.”
In Iowa, county budgets must be certified to the state by April 30th.
