Greetings from Le Sueur County 

As the old year ends and the new year begins it gives everyone a chance to reflect on the past and look to the future. As I reflect on 2025 for the County, one word resonates with me and its “uncertainty”. 

Uncertainty refers to situations involving imperfect or unknown information, typically characterized by doubt or a lack of confidence about an outcome. It is also linked to the experience of anxiety arising from unpredictable future events or a perceived lack of control. No one likes uncertainty and attempts to reduce it, whether it’s in our personal lives or in our work settings. Uncertainty is usually created by forces many times outside of our control, which makes it even more frustrating to navigate and control. 

In this past year, we were reminded of how closely county government operations are linked to decisions made at the State and Federal levels of government and how much uncertainty that can create, especially as we are generally accustomed to an environment with lack of uncertainty and predictability. 

In past columns I have shared about the multitude of pending and possible mandated cost shifts and burdens in the Human Services arena of our county operations. Some of these we know, but many are still unknown and may have a dramatic future financial impact upon the County. With nearly 20 percent of the County’s property tax levy already going to Human Services operations and its expectation to grow, it will continue to force the County to even more closely scrutinize spending decisions across all county operations. 

As a reminder, the County does not get to pick and choose which Human Services programs and services to provide. Most programs and services are mandated by state law, so programmatic changes must be made at the State level. With the upcoming State Legislative Session starting in February, we hope to receive more answers to the questions that have impact on our county budget, along with more answers from our federal government partners, namely the USDA with the SNAP program. 

Switching gears, the following are items of business the Board of Commissioners addressed during the month of December. 

• Adopted the 2026 final property tax levy and budget. The levy increase will be 4.4 percent. 
• Updated user fees.
• Approved contract for the new Sheriff’s Office Record Management System along with law enforcement contracts for cities of Elysian, Kasota and Kilkenny.  
• Finalized redetermination of benefits of county ditches 9, 36, 51, 59 and 68.  
• Approved professional services contracts with SWCD, Surveyor, Lake Washington Campground Caretaker, and Broadband consulting. 
• Received Department updates from Auditor/Treasurer, Courts, IT, Probation, Treatment Court, and Veterans Services.  
• Received update on DNR dam replacement projects at Lake Gorman and Lower Sakatah.