Property Taxes, EMS Tax Levy Among County Supervisors' Top Priorities In 2026

Continuing to find ways to rein in property taxes and getting Mills County residents to pass an Emergency Medical Services (EMS) tax levy are two issues high on the priority list for the Mills County Board of Supervisors in 2026.

During a 20-minute discussion with The Opinion-Tribune Friday morning, supervisors Richard Crouch, Lonnie Mayberry and Jack Sayers shared the collective sentiment that progress was made in curbing property taxes in 2025, but they will continue to look for ways to reduce spending over the next 12 months.

“I want to keep taxes as low as possible,” said Mayberry. “We need to stay on that every day.”

Sayers said Mills County is in the 50th percentile for population in the state of Iowa, but in the 30th percentile for highest property taxes, so there is still work to be done.

“I think this has been a long problem. It’s a systemic problem and we’ve got to get it rooted out,” he said. “We’ve got to find ways to cut.

“I understand the idea of local control and the importance of local control, but I also see the big burden that property taxes has had on people, especially young families, people starting out like me, people who are retired who are living on a fixed income. The average salary for a resident of Mills County is $44,000 annually. So, I personally believe that our local government spending is out of control. I think there’s a lot of ways we can get that taken care of, but it’s going to talk about re-visioning what local government is, what the county provides.”

The three supervisors said they cut funding in multiple areas and departments over the past 12 months.

“We tightened the belt in every department,” Mayberry said.

The supervisors noted specific funding cuts for public health and economic development in the 2025-2026 fiscal year budget.

“Public health is a prime example. Their county funding went down from $500,000 to $300,000 this fiscal year and we have no change of services and we even have better services,” Sayers said. “If that worked for public health, what other county departments can that work for? Where else can we find?

“We did take out money from economic development for various reasons but of course, we want economic development. I want economic development, but I want to make sure the money we’re putting in is actually giving us results – we’re getting something out of it.”

Crouch said the county has also “tightened the belt” in the county roads department and been budget-conscious in its hiring practices.

“We haven’t made new hires,” he said. “We’ve stayed steady with the amount of people we have but we have not added new people.”

EMS Tax Levy

The EMS tax levy will likely appear on the November general election ballot. State law allows counties to implement one or both of two funding options for EMS services: a property tax levy of up to 75 cents per $1,000 taxable valuation or a 1% income surtax. If the measure is on the general election ballot in November, it would require at least 60 percent approval from voters for passage.

The supervisors believe passage of the special property tax levy would help address concerns they have about EMS service in rural areas of the county.

“It’s a challenge because we are actually asking people to increase their taxes, but for a specific purpose  - mainly it is to save lives,” Crouch said.
Mayberry shared similar thoughts.

“It’s harder and harder to find volunteers to handle these volunteer fire departments, volunteer rescues,” he said. “I served 13 years doing it and back when I was doing it, there was almost a waiting list – Malvern was full, Glenwood was full, P.J. was full.

Everyone wanted to do it and everyone had the time to do it. Now, with the requirements, it’s just harder and harder to find volunteers to do it.

“I don ‘t want someone to pass away because we couldn’t get a rescue squad there. I don’t want someone to lose a house because we couldn’t get a fire department there.”

Other Issues Of Importance

A couple other issues on the supervisors’ radar for 2026 include the Loess Hills Regional Sanitary Landfill and the potential impact of the Cattlemen’s Heritage beef processing plant being proposed for northwest Mills County.

Sayers voiced his concerns about the landfill.

“We don’t get a whole lot of taxes from the landfill,” he said. “The landfill doesn’t employ dozens of people like Bunge does. The landfill is a small operation, but it’s the largest landfill in the state of Iowa – 650,000 tons, and what do we get for it?

“We don’t have people who are living here working there. We don’t have a large tax base from it, but we get traffic congestion on 34, which is causing safety concerns for the people who live there, causing safety concerns for people who drive on this stretch of road every day. We have trash along our highways and we have a larger bill for Mills County residents to bring trash than from people across the river. That’s not fair, that’s not right and we need to talk about it.”

Sayers said the county is exploring options it has in regard to collecting greater revenue from the landfill and the facility’s fee structure.

Crouch said ground-breaking for the beef processing plant, first announced in 2021, could finally happen this spring.

“There’s a lot of things that haven’t happened yet that they have to have done,” he said. “Ourbiggest problem would be our road conditions up there, the amount of trucks taking cattle in and taking out products. Everything has to go by truck so it really gets to be a clustered area.”

Crouch also shared concerns he has with Mid-American Energy’s acquisition of property on Hershey Ave., not in but near the Mills Crossing Mega Site east of Glenwood. He said the utility company plans to use the property for a battery storage unit.

Crouch added that his biggest problem with the proposed facility is the environmental and safety hazards it could create and the potential burden and responsibilities it could put on local fire departments.