County Board Unanimously Passes County Executive Schoemann’s Biennial Budget

WEST BEND, WI – The Washington County Board of Supervisors last night unanimously passed County Executive Josh Schoemann’s 2026-2027 biennial budget. This budget continues to keep the tax levy flat in 2026, with a slight decrease. Schoemann thanked the County Board for working diligently with the budget team by providing their input and feedback.

County Executive Schoemann highlighted several of the biggest challenges this year for the budget process. The largest factor was the failure of the state to more fully fund the operating costs of the state courts in the county courthouse, which was once a 50-50 shared venture and is now shouldered almost 80% by counties. The county requested $1.5 million from the state, yet received closer to $150,000.

Additionally, the impact of Governor Evers’ veto that made a 402-year permanent tax increase a reality, passing the responsibility on to school districts and directly onto property taxpayers. Municipalities and school districts are left to reconcile this in their budgets, and many are stuck increasing their property tax levies as a result.

“When those property tax bills hit people’s mailboxes, they’re going to look at the bottom-line number of their tax bill, and their jaws are going to drop. I don’t want to be a part of that problem,” said Schoemann. “The biggest issue I’m hearing is affordability, and we are likely to see hundreds or thousands of dollars of increases in property taxes. That is untenable. It’s not acceptable, and it is why I proposed a budget that actually has a modest decrease in property tax levy.”