Allen County commissioners seemed divided on a request to increase funding for economic development efforts.
Jonathon Goering, economic development director for Thrive Allen County, is asking each of the four funding sources to increase their budgets next year.
Iola City Administrator Matt Rehder is proposing each entity pay the equivalent of 1.5 mills for economic development. For Iola, that’s $50,000, up from the $20,000 the city currently pays. Council members have not approved his request.
Humboldt City Administrator Cole Herder was at Tuesday’s commission meeting and said he plans to ask his council for the equivalent of 1.5 mills, which would increase the amount that the city pays from $10,000 to $17,000.
Iola Industries also contributes $20,000.
Allen County currently contributes $20,000, but commissioners are looking at raising their annual funding to $50,000.
Commissioner Bruce Symes was in favor of the increase, but acknowledged commissioners were just starting to work on the next year’s budget. Though the county’s overall valuation has increased by about $10 million, commissioners are trying to hold off on any sort of tax increase.
They worked with accountant Rodney Burns on Tuesday to go through the budget. That work was not completed by press time.
Commissioner David Lee was cautious: “What we might want to do is keep this amount in mind as we go through the process this morning. Let’s see where we’re at, and if it’s something we can comfortably do, then yes. If not, pare it down.”
But Commission Chairman Jerry Daniels was a bit more hesitant.
The commission meeting was livestreamed on Facebook, and Daniels said someone watching sent a message to him in real time.
“I just got a text from a constituent who said, ‘No more.’ And that’s who I work for,” he said. “I’m not sure everyone feels that way,” he told Goering, “and you’ve done a lot of great work.”
But, he said, all county department leaders are being asked to justify any budget increases, so he wanted Goering to explain how the increase would benefit the county.
Goering presented a list of 47 projects, grants and events Thrive has organized in the past two years, as well as another nine or so since 2014 and eight projects the county has supported. 
Thrive helped the county obtain more than $4 million in grants to improve the airport and expects more to come, Goering said.
“What this (additional funding) does is just builds a bigger and better program. We could do more within the county,” he said.
