Rick Young, chairman of the Hamilton County Board of Supervisors, explained that his board had trimmed nearly $400,000 from the county’s budget this year, but it doesn’t look like it.

That’s because $385,320 that must be budgeted in 2025-26 pays the Emergency Medical Service levy passed by voters in November 2024.

Health insurance for county employees, he said, went up 0%.

About $22,000 was saved by cutting cell phone reimbursements for county employees.

The county has consolidated its services into fewer buildings, with the intention of selling the former Bliss Cancer building in Webster City that the county leases to the state Department of Human Services.

“Tonight we will approve this budget,” he told the group seated in the basement conference room for the unusual evening meeting at the Hamilton County Courthouse.

It wasn’t an easy process, he added.

“There’s 32 different departments,” Young explained. “It’s not something you learn in just three months.”

He was referencing the two new supervisors who began in January, Mary Clausen and April Ely. They had to scramble to understand the budget process, he said.

It was eye-opening.

“Why are we doing this?” Ely asked as the process moved along.

“Because that’s the way it’s been done,” Young answered.

“That’s a stupid answer,” Ely told him.

That’s how the budget process rolled in Hamilton County.

Later, Young told the people gathered, “It’s quite simple what we did.”

Major county department heads and employees got 3% increases. “Considerably less than what was recommended,” Young added.

The increase for the supervisors is 0%.