Washington County adopts FY2025–26 budget after cuts to services; proposal for climate task force fails

The Washington County Board of Commissioners adopted the county’s fiscal year 2025–26 budget on June 17, 2025, voting unanimously to approve a $2.068 billion budget package that includes significant one‑time reallocations, program reductions and personnel changes intended to close a projected general‑fund shortfall.

County Administrator Tanya Angie and finance staff said the county faced a forecasted $20.5 million gap in the general fund due to constrained property‑tax growth and rising costs. To achieve balance, staff proposed and the board approved reductions that included rolling back longstanding general‑fund transfers to the Major Streets Transportation Improvement Program (MISTIP) and Washington County Cooperative Library Services (WCCLS), departmental staffing reductions (including elimination of certain vacant positions) and targeted cuts across public safety, health and human services and other functions. The budget package the board adopted includes the county’s permanent property tax rate (2.2484 per $1,000 assessed value), a public safety local option levy and a library local option levy per the budget committee’s recommendations.

Commissioner Nafissa Fai proposed a late amendment to reallocate $120,000 in gain‑share contingency funding to create and convene a community‑informed climate action plan task force, intended to hire or reassign a project coordinator, convene stakeholders, provide translation and stipends for frontline community participation, and produce a preliminary framework for county climate resilience work. The amendment would have been a one‑time allocation funded from gain‑share contingency; it failed on a 1–4 vote after board members expressed concern about timing, insufficient preparation for implementation and the county’s strained fiscal and staffing capacity. Commissioner Fai and several community speakers at the meeting urged the board to fund either staff or the task force; residents and local environmental groups objected to the proposed elimination of the county Office of Sustainability and pressed for continued climate planning.

County leadership described further funding uncertainty from federal and state sources, noting possible cuts to federal programs that could affect county services; staff also flagged a separate state funding shortfall that will reduce Community Corrections funding and require workforce reductions in that program later this fiscal year. The adopted budget also contains a supplemental budget action for the current fiscal year and multiple special‑district and service district budgets adopted during the same meeting.

After adoption, County Administrator Angie said staff will continue to develop the fall supplemental budget and provide status updates as federal and state funding signals change. The board’s vote finalizes the FY26 appropriations and starts the county’s next fiscal year on July 1, 2025.