Dec 5, 2025 By Mike Jones 4 min read

The Washington County commissioners unanimously passed their 2026 budget with no tax increase, although there are disagreements about new positions being created to form a county-run drug and alcohol services program.

During Thursday’s voting meeting, the commissioners approved the nearly $136 million spending plan that keeps taxes at 2.43 mills and continues the county’s 17-year streak of no tax increases, although the millage rate was adjusted in 2017 following the countywide reassessment.

“Little dicey that we didn’t have a state budget for almost the entire time (planning the budget) and a little dicey because we had a federal government shutdown for a while,” commission Chairman Nick Sherman said after the vote. “So it did cut into a lot of our reserves that we had. So at the end of the day, we had a lot less money to work with since we weren’t making any of the interest. But we were able to execute this budget where you saw almost every county around us cutting services.”

The $135.977 million spending plan is a 2.7% increase over last year’s $132.36 million budget. The county expects to produce $111.5 million in revenue next year, meaning $22.3 million will need to come from the estimated $46.75 million remaining in the fund balance to make up the gap between revenue and spending in the general budget.

While the three commissioners were in agreement about passing the budget, Commissioner Larry Maggi raised concerns about the creation of a new program within the Department of Human Services to battle drug and alcohol addiction, which he said would duplicate services already performed by the Washington Drug and Alcohol Commission.

“I realize that there are important items in this budget that require funding … therefore I will vote yes for the budget,” Maggi said. “However, I do not agree with the funding that is earmarked creating new government bureaucracy to handle the job that the Washington Drug and Alcohol Commission has done well for over 20 years. I do not support the funding of these new positions, and I will not support their creation later.”

He said the new program would create the position of community engagement and strategy director that would pay a salary of $110,000 a year plus benefits, along with a deputy director position. The budget also calls for reclassifying 10 other positions under that umbrella, which he questioned the need for since the nonprofit Washington Drug and Alcohol Commission already performs those duties for the county.

Before the vote, WDAC Executive Director Cheryl Andrews spoke during public comment and said the move would create a “competing program” that would be appropriating money to operate a “second drug and alcohol program” within the county. WDAC has operated as Washington County’s designated “single county authority” on drug and alcohol services since 2002.

“(It) would fundamentally change the structure of drug and alcohol services and directly affect the single county authority,” Andrews said. “It is difficult to understand how these roles can be created. To my knowledge, the county has not received any determination from the state about changing the SCA structure.”

Andrews said she was invited to meet with Sherman – which he said was scheduled for Thursday afternoon – but it was planned on short notice and she felt uncomfortable about specific requests for information about the commission sent to her in advance.

“The tone and scope of that request made me question whether the intention was truly collaboration or something that could be used to further harm the commission,” Andrews said.

The commissioners voted 2-1 last month – Sherman and Commissioner Electra Janis voted in favor with Maggi opposing it – to send a letter to the state asking it to consider a proposal to bring the drug and alcohol program “in-house” through the county’s Department of Human Services. The state is expected to respond to the proposal within six months.