RENO COUNTY, Kan. — Reno County has a budget document that is prepared and approved every year separate from the overall county budget. This budget is the special districts budget. The Reno County Commissioners are the governing body for each of the special districts independently and they will look at those budgets at their Wednesday meeting.
According to agenda documents provided to commissioners, to simplify the adoption of the budgets, each of the special districts listed below are included in the budget.
Fire District No. 2 (Hutchinson Fire, surrounds the city)
Fire District No. 3 (Nickerson and Highlands area)
Fire District No. 4 (Partridge, Arlington, Plevna, Pretty Prairie, Langdon area)
Fire District No. 6 (Sylvia area)
Fire District No. 7 (Turon area)
Fire District No. 8 (Yoder, Pleasantview, Habit area)
Fire District No. 9 (Haven, east side of Cheney Reservoir area)
Fire District Joint No. 1 (Reno/Kingman) (Pretty Prairie and west side of Cheney Reservoir area)
Fire District Joint No. 2 (Reno/Harvey) (Buhler area)
Sewer District No. 1 (Cedarview)
Sewer District No. 3-10 (Blue Spruce)
Sewer District No. 201 (Yoder)
Sewer District No. 202 (HABIT)
Sewer District No. 8 (Highlands)
Water District No. 8 (Highlands)
Water District No. 101 (Yoder)
At the requested and recommended level, all but four special districts would go above the RNR.
Reasons for this include low assessment increases in various districts, along with increased costs and the build-up of their reserve funds. The four (4) funds/districts under the RNR are Fire District No. 8 (Pleasant View, Yoder, and HABIT area), Fire District No 9’s Bond & Interest (Haven area), Sewer District No. 8 (The Highlands) and Sewer District No. 8 Bond & Interest.
At the last meeting, commissioners wanted to see another option for the budgets which have them all at the RNR. The alternative requested by the commission, includes removing all property taxes from the sewer districts, so their budget would automatically be under the RNR. The amount of decrease in each utility districts' respective budget will be increased on the users fee paid monthly. The amount of cuts to the various fire districts are as follows.
Fire District 2: $187,213, impacts the agreement with City of Hutchinson
Fire District 3: $25,581
Fire District 4: $43,237
Fire District 7: $6,980
Fire District 8: $30,167
Fire District Joint 1: $33,779
Fire District Joint 2: $34,732
Impact on Fire Districts by remaining at the RNR
Fire District 2 is run by the City of Hutchinson as part of the Hutchinson Fire Department. Any changes to the request must be agreed to by both Reno County's and the City of Hutchinson's governing bodies.
If changes must be made to get back to revenue neutral, county staff can utilize the same basic budgets that were accepted for 2023. Commissioners would have to move a little bit of money around to make sure the funding of the fire administrator has enough money in the line item.
If the BOCC wants the fire districts to remain revenue neutral, they will continue to get further behind on their capital equipment purchases.
The county often puts off large purchases, and in most cases, the fire district is able to use their vehicles long past their expected service life. By NFPA standards, a piece of equipment cannot be more than 25 years old.
At the very least, the goal should be to have the equipment in NFPA compliance but the fire districts are not at that point yet. If fire districts were to replace the equipment at the recommended service life, as shown, there is a large yearly deficit. The fire districts would need to be funded at a combined additional $450,000 yearly to be able to replace the major equipment at the recommended service life.
The communication and safety equipment of the fire districts have a large impact on their budgets.
Prior to hiring a Fire Administrator, the county let the districts choose when they would purchase new personal protective equipment and 800MHZ radios. With the new policies and procedures being developed, at a minimum, the fire districts are required to purchase wildland and bunker gear for their firefighters every 10 years. Personal protective equipment in the fire service has a shelf life of 10 years and there is a need to ensure the safety of the volunteers. There will be a few occasions that gear gets torn or beat up and needs replaced before it expires. There are approximately 165 firefighters on the rural districts, to outfit one averages around $6,000.
The 800mhz radios need to be replaced, the radios used now cannot be updated or serviced, it is often a wait of several weeks to receive aftermarket batteries that are not intrinsically safe. The fire districts plan to do that over a period of 10 years instead of purchasing them all at the same time. Replacement cost of radios is currently around $5,000 for the new model.
While staff does not recommend staying revenue neutral for 2024, if cuts are made, the fire districts will prioritize firefighter safety by purchasing personal protective equipment and radios. The vehicle replacement schedule will get further behind.
For the sewer districts that have property tax, there is an attached summary that keeps all districts at/below the RNR, but leaves the option of a property tax for sewer districts. The reason for this is that if the commission has any district (fire or utilities) above the RNR, there would be additional time to discuss the impact on users.
Utility districts are meant to be user fee based, but with Reno County's history of using the property tax, user rates will likely have to double (or more) since the property tax covers an amount at least equal to that of most sewer district fees.
Remaining Budget Schedule
Below is a tentative budget schedule, along with deadlines from the State of Kansas, based on the county exceeding the Revenue Neutral Rate (RNR). Even if the RNR is not exceeded with the final budget, it is strongly recommended going through the process in anticipation of exceeding the RNR to protect the county. The purpose of following the process to exceed the RNR is that the rate is based on an estimated assessed valuation that may go up or down between now and November 1, 2023.
July 20 – Last day to notify the County Clerk about Reno County's Revenue Neutral Rate (RNR) intentions.
August 20 - September 20: Hold RNR hearing prior to official budget hearing. Publication of hearing must be published in the newspaper and online at least 10 days prior to the hearing.
August 20 - September 20: Hold official Budget Hearing with same publication requirements as used for the RNR hearing. The two hearings can be on the same day.
August 20 - October 1: Pass Resolution to exceed RNR and formally adopt 2023 budget.
August 30 - October 1: Certify budget and electronically submit to the County Clerk.
At Wednesday’s commission meeting, the maximum budget needs to be set. When the commission decides the maximum budget amounts, there is still an opportunity to cut the various budgets, but not to increase the expenditures.
If commissioners decide to cut to revenue neutral, the hearing will have to be August 9, if they choose to file the RNR paperwork, the hearings will be September 13.
The Board of County Commissioners meets Wednesday at 9 a.m. in the Veterans Room of the Reno County courthouse.
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