Dunn County board holds budget workshop, warns of tighter 2026 finances and launches prioritization exercise

Chair McCullough, chair of the Dunn County Board, opened the special budget workshop and turned the floor to staff to present the proposed 2026 budget and related planning materials.

County staff told supervisors the county faces constrained levy growth and fewer one-time federal funding sources that in recent years helped balance operations. Beata, a county finance staff member, said the county’s estimated levy for the coming year is $18,990,000 and described the county’s unassigned fund balance, debt levels and statutory levy limits.

The presentation explained how Dunn County accounts for its finances across multiple funds — the general fund, special revenue funds such as human services and register-of-deeds land modernization, capital project funds, debt service, internal service funds (including highway operations and IT equipment replacement) and enterprise funds such as transit. Staff highlighted that salary and fringe increases are the largest drivers of the proposed general fund expense increases and described tools used to balance the budget, including a wage-variance assumption and fund-balance uses for one-time capital…