Also holding a special meeting Tuesday will be the Lake County Commission, which needs to pull over a half-million dollars from reserves to cover next year’s expenses:
The provisional budget the commissioners had approved, included a 3% wage increase for county employees. After seeing the budget shortfall, commissioners indicated they would like to see a budget with only a 2% increase. However, even that reduction will not be enough to eliminate the use of reserve funds to cover the budget.
…The County will approve a final budget during a special meeting on September 23rd [“County Looks to Fill $500,000 Shortfall,” KJAM Radio, retrieved 2025.09.19].
State can’t build a prison without raiding reserves; Lake County can’t plow the roads without tapping the snowy-day funds.
Lake County would be dipping more deeply into its reserves—or nixing those pay raises altogether—if it hadn’t enacted a new road and bridge levy back in June. Lake County expects the additional 0.06% property tax (that’s $420 on a $700K house, and $700K is roughly the median asking price of the 37 home listings I find around Lake Madison on Zillow this morning) to bring in $1,415,031 in 2026, By law, the county has to hand 25% of the proceeds to the municipalities, leaving Lake County with $1,061,273 from the new tax to spend on roads and bridges connecting those nice lake homes with Madison, Chester, and the great wide world beyond.