The Carroll County Conference Board voted 3-0 last night (Thursday) to approve an amended Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 budget for the Carroll County Assessor’s Office. The conference board is a unique entity in municipal government. It is a three-body board that oversees the assessor’s office and consists of the county supervisors, the county’s mayors, and representatives from the county’s school boards. Each member does not vote individually; each bloc must “vote” internally on an action. Haberl was requesting an approximately 24-percent increase in the salary line item for her three-person department. While that percentage may seem large, County Assessor Sarah Haberl, who took over the office about 18 months ago, says it is intended to bring the office’s compensation in line with similarly sized counties.
Haberl also points to operational changes implemented during her tenure, such as bringing property tax evaluations back in-house rather than using a third-party vendor and converting physical property records to digital storage. Haberl cites her estimated 429.25 hours of overtime in FY26, which are functionally unpaid as a salaried position. Haberl was seeking a mid-year adjustment to the office’s pay to match market value and to continue that pay adjustment into FY27. Carroll County Board of Supervisors Chair Gene Meiners says mid-year salary changes are quite rare for the county.
Meiners notes they have adjusted salaries for department heads in the past, but that generally involved a new hire. The assessor is not an elected position, nor does it fall strictly under the county government’s control, despite the office being located in the courthouse. Assessors are functionally jointly employed by the county, schools, and cities, and answer only to the conference board. Halbur Mayor Bryan Wittrock says he does not oppose trying to close market rate gaps, but not in a single year.
The supervisors approved an $1,800 raise, almost unilaterally across the board, for county staff, and they moved to match the assessor’s office raises to the county. That motion died due to a lack of a second. The mayors suggested a three-percent increase, but that also lacked support from the other voting blocs. The school boards then re-suggested the $1,800 figure, which was seconded by the supervisors. That motion was approved 3-0. The vote was unanimous among the supervisors and school boards, but the mayors only managed a majority in their yes vote. The conference board also reviewed the assessor’s FY27 proposed budget of $1.038 million. Carroll County Supervisor Mike Andersen says he has concerns about budget growth, as it has nearly tripled since he took office at the start of 2023.
Haberl acknowledges the increases and says some of it is due to rising costs across the board. Additionally, she says there are concerns that the legislature will severely limit government budget growth down the line, and underbudgeting could leave the assessor’s office in a very difficult position. The conference board went line by line through the budget, bringing it below $1 million. With the preliminary budget agreed upon, the conference board voted to schedule the public hearing on the FY27 budget for Monday, Feb. 23, at noon at the courthouse. A link to the almost three-hour meeting from Thursday evening is included below.
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