Racine mayor presents balanced 2026 budget, prioritizes lead-pipe removals, regional passenger rail and community safety

Mayor Mason, the mayor of Racine, presented the city’s 2026 budget at a special common council meeting, proposing a balanced plan that he said cuts no services, eliminates no positions and lowers the property tax mill rate from 12.1 to 11.75 per $1,000 of assessed value.

The budget statement laid out the dollar figures and priorities: total spending including regional water and wastewater utilities of $275 million, an operational budget of $108 million, and a property tax levy of nearly $63 million. "This budget is balanced. It cuts no services, eliminates no positions, and reduces the property tax rate," Mason said.

Mason framed the proposal as fiscally restrained but focused on neighborhood investment. He said the budget reduces the combined taxes and fees on an average $175,000 home by just over 1 percent to about $2,400 and described the proposed mill rate as the lowest in 15 years. He credited voter approval of a recent referendum for preserving firefighter staffing but said the city should not have had to hold the referendum to maintain services.

The mayor highlighted several headline priorities. First, a legally mandated, federally funded push to remove lead service lines: a five-year plan to remove roughly 11,000 lead service lines and lead water mains across the city. "There is no safe level of lead for children to consume, not one drop, none whatsoever," Mason said, and he said the city will use available federal funds and a…