The Jasper County Board of Supervisors are holding budget hearings this week as they work towards creating a fiscal year 2025-2026 county budget. Seven separate hearings were held yesterday, which included budget proposals from the County Engineer, the Board of Health, the County Recorder, and the Office of General Assistance. More hearings are scheduled through Thursday. 

Jasper County Board of Supervisors Chairman Brandon Talsma hopes to pass a budget for the next fiscal year that keeps the increase in total property tax collections below 1.5%.

“The dollar amount that was being collected by Jasper County remained exactly the same for three or four  years in a row. Unfortunately, we had to do a couple of increases between two and four percent. But if you average it out over the last six years, we are averaging about a 1.5% increase. So, I think it’s doable. I’m not saying it’s going to be easy.”

Talsma says the County Supervisors are a couple of weeks ahead of where they normally are in terms of completing a new county budget, and that his goal is to have it finalized in mid February.