Oneida County budget: 3.7% levy increase, 2.64% wage hike

The Oneida County board of supervisors will consider in November a proposed 2026 budget of $74.6 million in total county spending — a 10-percent decrease from the previous year — that would raise the property-tax levy to $18.97 million, an increase of 3.7 percent.

The county’s executive committee approved the budget proposal following public hearings in early October, after considering county departmental and agency requests for the coming year.

Despite the levy increase, if the budget is approved, the county’s tax rate per $1,000 of equalized value would drop by 5.3 percent to $1.44, from $1.52 last year. The budget would also provide a 2.64-percent general wage increase for county employees.

The public budget hearings produced more than $1 million in cost-cutting and revenue adjustments, finance director Tina Smigielski reported, culminating in a balanced operational budget for supervisors to consider.

The proposed 2026 budget would fund 352.21 full-time-equivalent (FTE) positions, virtually unchanged from last year’s 352.13 FTEs. The Human Service Department, sheriff’s office, and highway department account for two-thirds of the county’s workforce.

Across all operations, personnel-related expenses would total $39.3 million, or 53 percent, of spending, up about 4 percent year-over-year. The proposed budget attributes the increase to “inflationary wage and benefit increases.” 

Departments seeing personnel growth include highway (one additional FTE position) and human services (a three-quarters FTE position), while public health and the medical examiner’s office show small reductions.

Capital spending

The budget divides the county’s finances primarily into four major funds — general, special revenue, capital projects, and enterprise.

The general fund, which supports the county’s primary operations, is set at $34.1 million in both revenues and expenses. The plan intentionally draws down about $3.4 million in available fund balance to underwrite shortfalls in other funds, though the proposed transfer is in compliance with Oneida County’s Stabilization Fund Policy, the budget proposal states.

According to the budget proposal, special revenue funds — which include social services, ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) allocations, nursing, WIC (Women’s Infants and Children), public health, highway, and the opioid settlement — are projected to bring in $25.4 million and spend $26.8 million, leaving a $1.4 million deficit. That gap will be filled by unrestricted balances from the general fund, chiefly to support roadway reconstruction projects.

The Capital Project Funds will take in $1.7 million and spend $3.3 million, combined.

“The Airport Capital Fund is related to federally funded improvements at the Rhinelander-Oneida County Airport and nets to zero,” the proposal states. “The County’s Capital Improvement Fund accounts for investments in equipment, facility, and information technology capital projects for the buildings and grounds, forestry, and information systems technology departments.”

That latter account has a deficit of $1.7 million that will be covered with a transfer of funds from unrestricted balance of the General Fund.

In all, for 2026, total capital projects spending would top $5.1 million. A $3.4 million general fund transfer, along with a general fund loan and more than $1.1 million in department funds will help cover the total.

Projects include $388,170 to buildings and grounds for, among other things, a Law Enforcement Center cooling tower replacement and ADRC roof and fire panel upgrades. Highway would get $3.1 million, including $1.4 million for road reconstruction, electrical system upgrades at the Rhinelander facility, and a patrol truck purchase. 

IT Systems would get $1 million, featuring a countywide Microsoft 365 migration and a New World software overhaul for the sheriff’s department, while solid waste would take in $257,000 that would include a PFAS leachate treatment unit installation, a notable environmental initiative after the city of Rhinelander stopped accepting landfill leachate. 

The county’s enterprise funds comprise business-type operations such as solid waste, Winnebago Street, and the Highway Internal Service Funds.

“Combined, these funds total $10.1 million in estimated revenues and $10.3 million in projected expenses,” the proposal states. “The surplus of $137,000 in the Winnebago Street Fund will be retained in that fund for future capital needs; and the deficit of $350,000 in the Highway Internal Service Fund is related to Highway Department facility projects funded with a transfer of unrestricted general fund balances.”

Revenues

Total revenues are estimated to be $71.3 million, a 9-percent decrease compared to last year’s budget.

Taxes account for 39 percent of the total revenues estimated — a 5-percent, or $1.3 million, increase versus last year’s budget, the budget proposal states. Sales tax is the county’s second-largest revenue behind the property tax levy, projected at $7.3 million, a 3.6-percent increase.

“Amounts estimated are based on national and state trends, including metrics issued by the Wisconsin Department of Revenue,” the proposal states. “The executive committee and finance department will monitor this economically sensitive revenue source as the year progresses.”

Intergovernmental revenues and public charges for services are both down significantly from last year, but align with current year-end estimates, Smigielski reported. The county attributed part of a 2025 overestimate to the restructuring that created the Human Service Department.

Licenses and permits, fines, forfeitures, and penalties are estimated to be consistent with the prior year, though they are a relatively small revenue stream for the county, Smigielski reported.

Interest income on invested cash balances will nudge miscellaneous revenue slightly higher — interest income has rebounded as higher interest rates increase returns on idle cash balances — while other financing sources fluctuate annually as departments roll over prior appropriations for continuing projects.

Under the proposed 2025 property tax levy, collected in 2026, the county would raise $18.97 million, up 3.7 percent. The Wisconsin Department of Revenue reported that Oneida County’s equalized value grew 9.5 percent to $13.3 billion, allowing the county’s tax rate to fall 5.3 percent to $1.44 per $1,000 of value.

Oneida County's proposed budget dedicates 29 percent of planned spending to human services (Human Service Department, Public Health Department, and Veteran Services), with public safety, public works, and general government accounting for 23 percent, 21 percent and 18 percent respectively of the budget, Smigielski reported.

“Human services is slated to be the highest spending category at $21.4 million, down $3.2 million from the prior year budget but more closely aligned with current year-end estimates,” the proposal stated. “This change is attributed to the newly created Human Services Department shifting from outsourcing these services to insourcing for Oneida County, and Oneida County providing these services to Vilas and Forest counties.”

Public safety and general government are up 3 percent and 1 percent, respectively, as compared to the prior year, related to increased costs of labor and inflationary impacts on contracted services, the proposal states.

Across all functional categories, Smigielski reported, personnel-related expenses make up $39.3 million, or 53 percent, of the planned expenses in the upcoming year. Inflationary wage and benefit increases are driving those costs up by 4 percent year-over-year, the finance director wrote.

“The largest budgeted expense by department is Human Services, the Sheriff’s Office, and the Highway Department at 23 percent, 18 percent, and 17 percent of total expenses respectively,” the proposal states. “This is consistent with the fact that these three departments have the highest number of personnel and project/program-based programming. All other departments and outside agencies account for the remaining 42 percent of proposed expenses for the upcoming year.”

General-purpose spending categories — human services, public safety, and public works — are subject to the state’s levy limit and account for $15.54 million of the total levy, a 1.3 percent allowable increase, or $207,000.

“Other aspects of the levy are ‘above the cap’, including bridge aid, emergency medical services, WDOR charges, and funding for the libraries,” the proposed budget states. “This amount is proposed for $3.43 million.”

The levy resolution specifies individual amounts for each of those categories: $484,085 for libraries, excluding the city of Rhinelander and several towns that maintain their own systems; $2,712,845 for countywide emergency medical services; $237,559 for town bridge aid; $535 for chargebacks of refunded or rescinded taxes; and $15,537,944 for all other county services.

No levy is proposed for state forestry taxes, debt service, or special charges for charitable or penal purposes.

The wages of sin

The county board will also be considering a general wage increase resolution in addition to the budget, which was expected to be approved at this week’s executive committee meeting. The resolution would enact a 2.64-percent general wage increase for all general municipal employees, effective Jan. 3. 

The figure tracks with the Consumer Price Index–Urban (CPI-U) increase calculated by the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission.

“The executive committee has received information from department heads, elected officials and other county board supervisors regarding the need for the county to continue to provide essential and sometimes difficult services to the community,” the resolution states. “In order to provide such services, the county must be able to hire qualified staff, and retain and motivate current staff in an extremely competitive hiring market. The county has seen the benefit of setting a competitive wage to enable the county to continue to hire qualified individuals to provide essential and difficult services to the community.”

Under the plan, exempt and non-exempt wage schedules will rise 2.64 percent at the so-called “control point (Step 6),” with all other steps adjusted accordingly.

The most visible structural change in the 2026 budget remains the consolidation of social-service operations into the new Human Service Department. County officials say the shift from outsourcing to in-house management has reduced administrative duplication and improved service coordination across counties.

The $3.2 million reduction in human-services spending compared with the previous year reflects both the elimination of outsourcing and providing those services to Vilas and Forest counties.

Once approved, the new budget will take effect Jan. 1, 2026, aligning with the start of the fiscal year.

Richard Moore is the author of “Dark State” and may be reached at richardd3d.substack.com.