Crawford County Finance Committee prepares for next budget
Progress made on the jail addition project’s skywalk that connects the new building to the existing courthouse and law enforcement center. The skywalk will allow safe, secure transport for inmates to the courthouse during hearings. (Steve Van Kooten/Courier Press)
By Steve Van Kooten
The Crawford County Finance Committee has begun preparations for next year’s budget. Like many municipalities and community organizations, the county is closely watching the federal and Wisconsin budget proposals as they start to build up a plan for 2026.
At their June 18 meeting, Finance Chair Gary Koch said he hasn’t seen any intention by the State Legislature to change the restrictions on county levy limits, pointing out that state-shared revenues, which are Crawford County’s second biggest revenue stream after sales tax, only went up $31,000 this past year.
“If you take the last three years, we’ve been stuck in neutral as far as how much we can levy. It’s barely increased,” he said.
The county also has to consider increases in expenses, including wages for employees and health insurance costs.
“I figured if we had another 10 percent increase to our health insurance, it would be $275,000,” said Koch. “We’re kind of in a box.”
Koch added that the county expects to see the previous year’s audit as early as this month.
“That tells us how we actually did in 2024. By that time, we’ll also have our second quarter of this year, so we’ll know what that is,” he said.
County Clerk Robin Fisher said budget worksheets were sent to department heads.
“What I’ve been telling department heads of committees I sit on is that if they’re looking at their budget, they should retain the same amount of levy as last year,” said Koch. “In other words, I don’t want to see any increases in the levy, so you can raise expenses as much as you want to, but you better find revenue so that the county’s share is the same as last year. I think that’s our starting point.”
The county will continue to work on the budget throughout the year before presenting it to the public this fall.
Opioid funds
Dan McWilliams, director of the county’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), brought an application for opioid settlement funding to the committee for approval.
“The subcommittee of the Health and Human Services looked at the first application for opioid projects, and it was submitted by the Prairie du Chien Police Department for input,” he told the committee.
The police department submitted a request for a one-time expenditure of $7,500 from the opioid settlement funds to install a new fume hood. McWilliams indicated it would be for the new public safety building.
A fume hood is a ventilated enclosure that can sequester materials that may produce harmful vapors, dust or other gas. The hood would reduce these hazardous exposures.
“It keeps it out of the area. It’s a protection,” said Supervisor Bruce Strnad.
“Currently, we do not have a safe way to test these confiscated drugs in a timely manner to then turn around and give real-time data to the public,” Prairie du Chien Police Chief Kyle Teynor told the Courier Press.
McWilliams said that the police department keeps evidence “some distance away” from where they intake harmful substances, such as fentanyl and recreational drugs that could pose a threat to officers and others.
The DHHS committee determined the request met the conditions of the opioid settlement, which requires the awarded money to be spent on projects that promote opioid mitigation and education to the public.
“What the department would also like to be able to do is make sure that in testing drugs when they come in, they would be able to educate the community as to what drugs are present,” said McWilliams. “If it was just for a fume hood, they would say no, but it’s that educational component that helps meet the requirements.”
Teynor said that the educational aspect of the project will be put out to local media sources to warn the public about positive tests for substances in confiscated drugs that are likely to cause overdoses.
McWilliams reached out to the Wisconsin Counties Association attorney, who determined that the education pieces made the project “a good use of the funds.”
Koch suggested the content would be beneficial for the county’s public health newsletter.
The committee unanimously approved the application from the police department.
Previous expenditures of opioid settlement funds included $20,000 toward peer-support recovery at Building Hope and $16,000 for expanded jail services.
The next meeting is scheduled for July 16.
Other business
• Crawford County Treasurer Deanne Lutz reported that the county’s sales tax for May was $223,954, which is significantly higher than the five-year average for the month. It’s an increase of nearly $30,000 over May 2024. April’s wheel tax decreased more than $1,400 compared to May 2024 and nearly $2,000 from March 2025.
• The committee approved the fair board’s purchase of a new fair-entry program, which will be used to organize entries for the Crawford County Fair. The previous program used by the country became unavailable, and the fair board had already approved the purchase, recommending it to the finance committee. According to Lutz, the program cost between $1,200 and $2,500.
