Kenosha County board approves multiple 2026 budgets; workforce amendment adds $20,000 for food assistance

The Kenosha County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved 2026 budget requests for multiple departments on Oct. 31, advancing capital IT projects, land-imagery work, and a series of human-services program budgets. During deliberations, supervisors also approved a $20,000 amendment to the workforce development budget to supply food-assistance providers.

Workforce amendment: Supervisor Kirby proposed and Supervisor Grama seconded an amendment to add $20,000 to the sheriff's community fund, split between the Sharing Center ($10,000) and the Shalom Center ($10,000). The board approved the amendment and the workforce budget as amended by voice vote.

Human services highlights: The Human Services division requested a levy increase of about $1.4 million (6.33%) overall. Key items approved included the Brookside Care Center budget, which budgets a 2026 census of 144 and a $500,000 levy giveback and is projected to move Brookside's proprietary fund to an estimated $450,000 positive reserve; Willowbrook's assisted-living budget, which holds private-pay rates steady and projects a $120,000 addition to reserves; and an across-the-division reduction in placements where state and regional changes reduced forecasted long-term detention days and placement costs.

Information Technology: County IT presented a budget that responds to rising renewal costs (an average increase the CIO cited at roughly 16% for service renewals) and sought capital funding for routine tech refresh items and several larger projects: a downtown campus exterior camera replacement (moving to a cloud-based video solution with longer vendor warranties and AI-assisted search), replacement of aging video servers and network switches, a refresh of about 300 workstations and roughly 200 wireless access points, and a $20,000 annual subscription request for a highway shop inventory/work-order system. The CIO also proposed data-security posture management software to inventory documents across the county network (the presenter noted the county stores roughly 45 terabytes and "about 8,000,000 documents") and to monitor for sensitive data exposure.

Land Information and grants: The Land Information director requested $88,500 in bonding for countywide imagery acquisition and reported the county received a $20,000 Wisconsin Land Information Program (WLIP) grant; staff said that grant will be added to the budget in January or February per statute governing WLIP funds.

Other departmental items: County Clerk Regine Hollador cited election-related increases for 2026 (four elections) affecting overtime, election supply and publications; Medical Examiner projected an increase in contracted autopsy fees (from $1,800 to $1,850) and budgeted 136 autopsies (a five-year average); public health budgets reflect grant drawdowns and higher building rent allocations; and aging, disability and behavioral health divisions had various revenue and staffing adjustments, including a behavioral-health placement reduction of roughly $770,000.

Board procedure and votes: Votes on individual departmental budgets were taken as voice votes after motions and seconds; specific motions were moved and seconded by supervisors on the floor (examples below). Where recorded, motions passed by unanimous voice vote.

Actions & notable motions at the meeting (selected):

- Motion to approve the COPPA budget (moved by Supervisor Gertson; seconded by Supervisor Gama) — approved by voice vote. - Approval of the County Clerk budget following presentation by Regine Hollador — approved by voice vote. - Approval of Land Information budget including bonding request for imagery — approved by voice vote. - Approval of IT budget with capital projects and security acquisitions — approved by voice vote. - Human Services: approval of Brookside, Willowbrook, Director's office, DCFS, Workforce Development (as amended), Central Services, Medical Examiner, Veteran Services, Health Services, Aging & Disability, and Behavioral Health budgets — all approved by voice votes; workforce budget amended to add $20,000 for local food-assistance providers.

The board adjourned after completing the budget votes. Several supervisors asked for follow-up briefings or presentations (for example, finance committee briefing requests on the housing task force and IT steering committee composition).