Douglas County weighs support for community partners in budget talks

Douglas County commissioners opened budget hearings Friday by revisiting whether community partners still needed county solvency funding, with about 40 supplemental requests totaling more than $7 million sitting outside the proposed budget. Commissioner Erica Anderson said the county needed to sort out which organizations still required a financial bridge and which had become stable enough to absorb smaller awards or no county help at all.

The sharpest stakes centered on HeadQuarters Kansas, the Lawrence-based nonprofit that answers 988 calls, texts and chats for most of the state and also runs a direct line at 785-841-2345. The organization wants sustainable and reliable funding for the 988 Crisis and Suicide Prevention Lifeline, and county money has already been part of that safety net. Douglas County commissioners unanimously approved a $300,000 allocation to HeadQuarters on March 25 to help it through 2026 after the nonprofit projected it might not be able to meet its financial obligations.

That request followed a rough stretch for the organization. In June 2025, HeadQuarters told county commissioners it might need help after repaying nearly $300,000 in misspent grant funds. A 2024 audit found the nonprofit needed to repay more than $340,000 in grant money spent between 2021 and 2023, and HeadQuarters' expenses outpaced revenues by about $1.3 million over two years. The organization has provided crisis and counseling services since 1969.

In July 2025, commissioners tentatively agreed to reserve $1 million for mental-health crisis care beginning in 2026. They later adopted the county’s 2026 budget at about $202.6 million, with a mill levy of 40.669 mills, down 0.629 mills from the year before. In May, commissioners also told staff to prepare a flat property-tax rate for the next budget cycle.

Douglas County distributes property-tax revenue to a wide range of local taxing entities.