Butler County commissioners said there will be no tax increase in 2026, though that may not be the case in the next few years.

At the commissioners’ meeting Wednesday morning, Nov. 19, they unveiled a 2026 budget proposal that keeps taxes flat, but includes a nearly $6 million deficit.

The proposed total budget, which is comprised of the general and all other county budget funds, is $249.87 million, about $7 million less than 2025.

The county’s general fund budget proposal is $84.6 million, a 3.8% increase from 2025, while general fund revenues are projected to be $75.55 million, a deficit of nearly $6 million.

Commissioners will pull from the capital reserve fund to cover the deficit. They said the current reserve fund balance is around $14 million.

For now, the tax rate will remain at 27.626 mills, where it has stood for years. A mill is equal to $1 in taxes for every $1,000 of assessed real estate value.

According to the budget proposal, public safety is the biggest expenditure, making up 31% of general fund spending. This includes the county jail, the 911 center, adult and juvenile probation, and hazmat.

Funding for the county judicial system, including the courts, the district attorney’s office, the sheriff’s department and coroner’s office, comprises 22% of general fund spending.

According to the proposal, general government sees 21% of budget expenditures. Human services would receive 8%. Debts services and interest payments would make up 5% of spending. A total of 9% would be transferred to other funds.

The vast majority of general fund revenues, just over $55 million, would come from local real estate taxes, according to the proposal. The remaining roughly $20 million would come from other sources, such as state and federal grants.

Commissioners and Ann Brown, the budget director, said the main reasons for the overall budget going down can be tied to less spending on capital projects, American Rescue Plan Act money no longer being a significant factor and less funding for the A-C Valley Industrial Park project than in past years.

“I just think it’s good that as a county we have the flexibility to be able to adapt to the changes that are occurring within the county. In the past, we’ve made some monetary investments in technology and infrastructure. We’ve done quite a few projects throughout the county,” Commissioner Leslie Osche said. “We’re at the point where we’re starting to wind down, narrowing, complete the projects we’ve started. The county won’t in the future have as many capital projects.”

Over the past several days, commissioners have presented the budget to the directors of various county agencies, showing what was projected to be a roughly $11 million deficit. They asked the directors to go back and work with them to find additional areas to save costs.

Osche said the goal was to “not eat up the entire fund balance.”

“The idea, ideally, is you have two months of fund balance, which for us is about $14 million,” Osche said. “The reason is what we just experienced, with a state budget impasse, to have money available during challenging times. When other counties were laying people off, stopped services, closing senior centers. They did those things, we kept going because we had the funding available to us.”

Commissioners said because the county has not reassessed property values in decades, it has made it difficult to maintain the status quo, even with a small tax increase in the future.

“Our property assessments are based on 1969, I believe, and our capped general fund millage is 25 mills, we’re at 22 approximately, so that really leaves us little room for tax increases that could generate any substantial money without reassessing,” Osche said. “And nobody wants to talk about this, but we have reached the point where we have to at least point out where the county stands.”

According to the proposed budget, Butler County currently has total assessed valuations of just over $2.06 billion.

Commissioners also said, while the county’s budget benefits from growth as more housing plans set up future growth in the tax base, the state also needs to top keeping funding flat for various programs long-term.

“I have to mention it for the taxpayers. They need to know that when our state legislators, and I’m not blaming them, but this is one of many pieces, where they flat fund us or don’t fund us as counties for programs and services we are mandated to provide, after decades of flat funding or no funding for those services, that the county ends up subsidizing. It catches up to you,” Commissioner Kim Geyer said. “That’s one aspect of this budget.”

Commissioner Kevin Boozel said even with strong growth in population, funding form the state is vital.

“We have one source of income, which is property tax, while states have multiple sources. Games of chance, games of skill, medical marijuana, sales tax, they have lots of levers to pull. When they flat us, looking at our general funds, they’ve grown, but not dramatically, even though we’ve see all this growth,” Boozel said.