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County anticipates labor negotiations, health-insurance volatility in 2026 budget
Summary
Legislators and staff flagged personnel costs, health-insurance claims and upcoming contract negotiations as key uncertainties in next year’s budget and said those items could require additional fund-balance use.
Legislators spent significant time on personnel and benefits after hearing staff present department-by-department changes. Staff and elected officials said health-insurance claims have fluctuated and might rise in 2026; one staff speaker said the three-year average for health insurance had been about $9.7 million, and recent high-claim cases had pushed costs higher.
Chair Papp and staff said labor negotiations with bargaining units (including CSEA and comparable groups) are under way and will likely produce costs the county will have to fund. Chair Papp said the county intentionally does not put a negotiated settlement figure into line-item budgets before deals are reached to avoid compromising bargaining strategy, but warned that settlements will likely require “a mid-six-figure amount” of funding and will be addressed using fund balance if needed.
Officials also noted several positions across departments were defunded, left vacant, or converted to part-time to reduce 2026 personnel costs. The county attorney, Megan, discussed requesting a part-time confidential secretary to formalize duties she said Nancy had been performing for about 10 years; she said the hire would be part time rather than a new full-time county position.
Why it matters: personnel and benefits are large recurring costs that directly affect both service delivery and the county’s ability to stay within tax-cap constraints. Legislators asked department heads to “hold the line” on new positions; several department requests were trimmed during staff review.
