Manitowoc County executive proposes 2026 budget with modest tax increase, health-premium hikes and major highway borrowing

The county executive presented a 2026 budget proposal calling for a $34,145,237 levy to support $98,219,616 in total spending and said the typical Manitowoc County property taxpayer would pay about 2.6% more in county property taxes than last year.

The proposal includes three stated priorities: a 1% across-the-board pay-scale increase for nonbargaining employees, a 20% increase in health-insurance premiums split between employer and employee, and an aggressive highway maintenance program that includes 16.6 miles of resurfacing and related projects.

Why it matters: The executive framed the plan as a continuation of long-term financial goals — holding property taxes “line” while maintaining low debt and funding capital needs. The proposal would introduce new recurring revenue from a 0.5% local option sales tax and use one-time and settlement funds to cover department deficits.

Key details

• Local option sales tax: The executive said Manitowoc County began receiving a 0.5% local option sales tax in 2025 and estimated revenues at $7.8 million in 2025 and $8.15 million in 2026. He proposed creating a special revenue fund to receive and account for that sales-tax revenue beginning in 2026.

• Levy, taxes and debt: The proposal sets the operations levy at $34,145,237 and total spending at $98,219,616; the executive said the county’s debt remains well below statutory limits (reported at under 7% of the statutory maximum). He recommended appropriating $450,000 from the projected 2025 general-fund surplus and placing the remainder into reserves.

• Employee pay and benefits: The executive recommended a 1% increase “on all cells in the pay scale” for nonbargaining employees, suspending performance-review bonuses for 2026 (but not the review process), and raising health-insurance premiums by 20% for both employer and employee shares. The premium change was presented as necessary because health-care inflation “has caught up with us.” The executive estimated the premium change would cost nearly $1.1 million and recommended transferring $683,000 from the general fund to the health-insurance reserve to cover prior transfers.

• Human Services funding and deficits: The executive said Human Services’ workloads remain high across child and family services, child protective services, foster care and clinical services. He reported the Human Services fund had a deficit (stated as $2,815,480) and that independent auditors had moved $1,053,048 from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) fund to partially cover earlier-year deficits. He recommended appropriating $11,000,000 (amount presented in the packet) to the Human Services fund and proposed allocating $950,000 of opioid-settlement proceeds to Human Services abatement programs.

• Highways and borrowing: The executive recommended appropriating $4,087,157 for the Highway Department, including 16.6 miles of resurfacing, and proposed borrowing $3,000,000 to support about $5,366,000 in highway projects.

• Courthouse dome and capital projects: The executive recommended borrowing $1,965,000 to fund architectural and engineering services for phase 2 of the courthouse dome rehabilitation, with a later phase scheduled for dome repairs in 2028 or 2029. He also recommended appropriating $147,000 from the Expo Reserve Fund for capital work at the Manitowoc County Expo, and transferring remaining bond funds (reported as $2,227,000) from phase 1 of the courthouse project to the debt-service fund.

• Staffing and organizational changes: The proposal would not add new county positions for 2026 overall; in fact the executive recommended eliminating one health-department position and four Human Services positions for 2026, while noting separate earlier requests (the coroner had requested two permanent positions) and recommending those be reconsidered in 2027 when the county plans to transition from a coroner system to a medical examiner. The executive also proposed creating a standalone Information Technology department separate from Public Works and recommended adjusting pay rates for highway maintenance staff based on market conditions (a personnel plan estimated at $2,800 in 2025 and $82,000 in 2026). He recommended reducing the county executive’s pay to the 2025 amount for 2026.

• Public safety technology: The executive addressed a recent RFP that combined body cameras and tasers and said the combined specification produced only one bid. He recommended reopening the RFP to allow vendors to bid separately on body cameras and tasers, which he said could cut costs substantially; he said he had included a request for body cameras in the sheriff’s budget but omitted an artificial intelligence add-on because of possible staffing impacts.

• Opioid litigation proceeds: The executive described existing payments from national opioid litigation, noting the county has received nearly $2,000,000 to date and is projected to receive additional funds. He framed those funds as abatement — to reimburse county expenses largely borne by Human Services — and recommended directing $950,000 of settlement proceeds to Human Services abatement expenses such as drug court costs, child-protective services responding to opioid cases, crisis contacts, respite beds and clinical services.

Discussion and next steps: The executive asked supervisors to review the budget booklets and meet with him or staff as needed. He invited oversight committees to review departmental budgets and said the board’s public hearing on the budget is scheduled for Oct. 27, with deliberations and a final vote set for Nov. 4 and a possible follow-up Nov. 11 to consider any vetoes.

Quotes

“The mission continues to be to deliver, keep delivering high quality services efficiently, taking as little from the taxpayers as we can,” the county executive said as he introduced the plan.

“We will conservatively estimate the local sales tax revenue to be at 7,800,000 in 2025 and $8,150,000 in 2026,” he said, recommending a special revenue fund to account for that money.

Ending

The executive asked board members to bring proposed amendments to oversight committees so the finance committee can consider them before the Oct. 27 public hearing. The board will deliberate on the budget at its annual meeting on Nov. 4; the county executive has seven days under Wisconsin statute to veto or approve the adopted budget, and supervisors set aside Nov. 11 for any required follow-up.