Members of the Shawano County Executive Committee agreed Aug. 20 to borrow $3.4 million and use another $3 from its reserve fund to balance the proposed 2026 budget.
A final vote on the exact dollar amounts is expected to be made when the committee meets Sept. 3.
“I think we broke the seal last year with borrowing that really hadn’t been done before,” said Jim Davel, administrative coordinator, referring to the county borrowing $2 million for the 2025 budget. “It’s a financial tool to help us set some conditions that we need for running our organization. This is not uncommon.”
Short-term borrowing, which the county pays back just 30 days into the new year, is a way to raise funds without increasing the operational levy. That levy is limited by state law, but the borrowing is considered debt service, in which the county has plenty of leeway.
“A lot of counties are borrowing,” said Nichole Zuehl, finance director. “A lot of counties are borrowing quite a bit.”
She added that even with the borrowing, the county’s 2026 mill rate would decrease from its 2025 level.
Wage increase
One of the largest portions of the budget is wages and benefits for employees. Shawano County wages are 8.5% below comparable counties.
Vacancies in 2025 mean the county will have a surplus of $1.8 million in that account. Of that, $84,545.08 will be used to provide employees with a 2% pay raise in the fourth quarter of 2025.
“The fourth quarter this year really corrects what should have been done,” said Julie Hasser, director of human resources.
Employees will also see a 3% increase due to a market adjustment of the wage scale and another 2.5% across-the-board pay increase for a total pay increase of 7.5%.
Hasser said other counties are expected to provide their employees with a total increase of 3.5-5%.
“It closes the gap, but it doesn’t eliminate it,” she said of the proposed Shawano County pay increase. “This is fantastic, but we still aren’t addressing all of the wage compression issues that we’re having. It would be a wonderful message to our employees, but it’s one piece of our puzzle, our piece of our budget, one piece of what we need to do to retain our employees.”
Supervisor Tess Serrano agreed.
“I’ve never thought that this county was paid properly,” she said of the county employees. “They’re our biggest asset, and we’re not treating them the way that they should be treated.”
Shift premiums, lead positions
Lively debate ensued when discussion turned to shift premiums for correctional officers and dispatchers. Both jobs have had several vacancies at any give time in the past year, forcing cancelled days off, low morale and high turnover.
The public safety committee recommended weekend premium pay for dispatchers and correctional officers, as well as adding team lead positions in dispatch.
County Board Chairman Tom Kautza has long opposed these premiums. He does not believe paying employees more will make them happy enough to stay.
“Every county has a problem getting people for dispatch. Every county has a problem with jailers,” he said. “Grant (Bystol, highway commissioner) has a problem keeping enough good people for the highway department. Everybody’s got a labor problem right now.”
Serrano disagreed.
“You are focused on one thing, and that is the percentage of the increase that is being suggested,” she said. “What you’re forgetting is the fact that we aren’t even there from the previous however many thousands of dollars of study that’s been done on what is needed. We aren’t where we need to be.”
Supervisor Randy Mallmann said the shift premium is worth a try.
“Trying doesn’t work in (the) county, because once it’s there, it’s there and it’s there forever,” Kautza said. “Nobody ever reduces anything. That’s my whole point of the time I’ve been here, nobody ever reduces anything.”
“How can you?” Serrano asked. “Mental health goes up. Food costs go up. Everything goes up except for the wages.”
“It’s called efficiency,” Kautza responded.
In the end, the additional pay and lead positions were approved, with Kautza also voting in favor.
Roads and bridges
Agreed to previously was money to repair 6.7 miles of county roads and bridges.
It’s been a longstanding goal of the county to perform work on 10 miles each year. At $325,000 per mile, another $1,040,000 is needed to reach that goal in 2026.
“We have to get Grant the funds to do what he needs to do,” Mallmann said. “Obviously, citizens are complaining that we’re not getting done what we need to get done already. The more we keep pushing it down the road, it’s going to get worse.”
Supervisor Randy Young agreed.
“We keep saying we need to do something,” he said. “It’s finally just time.”
Reserve funds
Shawano County has its own rule about its reserve fund — that it should be between 20-25% of the next year’s expenses. Right now, that fund is at 30%, which is why officials will use some of those funds.
Using $3 million in these funds will still leave the reserve account balance closer to 25% than 20%.
Another $249,000 will be used from the federal ARPA account. These funds represent interested earned and can be used for any purpose.
The public health department has a $161,000 fund balance, so $100,000 of that will be used, leaving $61,000 in the account.
DID YOU KNOW?
Capital improvement projects were also approved by the Shawano County Executive Committee. These include:
• Highway department roof project: This project is designed to repair the leaking roof that was sealed with a flexible liquid rubberized sealer in 2018 due to the roof leaking at that time. The estimated cost is $620,000, and the new roof would be placed on top of the existing roof with foam put below the new roof to add extra insulation to the building.
• East highway shop garage door replacement: This project is designed to replace seven overhead garage doors that are deteriorated to the point of needing replacement. These replacements would help repair the structural issues with the building that was originally built in the 1930s. The total estimated cost is $125,000.
• Cold storage with office building: This project is designed to provide shelter to parks department equipment that remains outside year-round along with adding a parks director office to replace the one in the proposed future rental house. The total estimated cost is $363,000.
• Rental house remodel: This project is designed to update the house where the current parks director office is located to make into a rental unit to generate revenue. The total estimated cost is $75,570.
The committee also agreed to hold off on carpet and flooring for the sheriff’s department ($34,000), increase boat rental revenue projection ($12,000) and increase veterans office hours to 32 hours ($8,000).
