The Leelanau County Board of Commissioners has officially approved a new budget for the 2026 fiscal year, putting a capper on a process that spanned nearly a dozen work sessions across three months. Here are five tidbits local residents should know about the new spending plan.

1. Spending is up (significantly) from a year ago

Just like anything else these days, county governance is getting more expensive. The new 2026 budget calls for $18,396,425 of general fund spending next year. The 2025 budget adopted one year ago this week earmarked $17,554,603 – a year-over-year increase of about 4.76 percent.

The county often overspends its plan due to unanticipated expenses that arise throughout the year. According to budget documents dated November 3, the county’s “amended” 2025 general fund budget is $19,218,644.

While County Administrator Jim Dyer noted the new draft budget provides “flexibility to address unanticipated events,” he’s optimistic that this spending plan will require fewer amendments.

“This year’s work included comprehensive departmental reviews, updated revenue forecasting based on long-term review of taxable value growth, and multiple board workshops to evaluate operational projections and capital needs,” Dyer said. “As a result of that process, I expect that we will have far fewer unanticipated expenses in 2026.”

How does the 2026 budget compare to where Leelanau County was with spending five or 10 years ago? Based on county documents, the audited 2016 general fund budget ended up at $12,922,203.59, while 2021’s was $13,950,797.22.

“Though we are focused mostly on the $18.4 million of the general fund budget, when combined with $14.3 million from special revenue funds and $1.6 million from enterprise funds – most of which comes from fees per service – and another $2 million from transfers and other various sources, we end up with a budget of $36 million,” Dyer added.

2. The increases do correspond with increases in revenues

The increases in spending correspond with climbing county revenues. The new budget projects $18,396,425 in general fund cashflow for 2026, the same amount the county is planning to spend. The lion’s share of that money is property tax revenue, projected at $13,981,719 for next year, up significantly from past budget years. For comparison, tax revenue for the county was $10,899,113.17 in 2022, $12,776,264.09 in 2024, and $13,385,307.00 in 2025.

Per Dyer, Leelanau’s 2025 equalization report indicates that the county’s taxable value “increased by almost $500 million” year-over-year, and “now totals more than $4.5 billion.”

“This continues a decade growth trend averaging 5.24 percent annually,” Dyer said of the growth. “While this taxable revenue would support general property tax revenues exceeding $14.6 million [in 2026], the proposed budget uses a conservative value of $13.98 million, to avoid overstating our expectations, while still leaving us with potential for a budget surplus if tax collections are as expected.”

3. The budget incorporates across-the-board raises for county employees

“On the expenditure side, personnel remains our largest investment,” Dyer said. “Over half of the $18 million general fund budget supports staff wages and benefits.”

The budget includes across-the-board 3 percent cost-of-living raises for all county employees. What it does not include are raises for elected officials, including leadership roles like county clerk, prosecutor, drain commissioner, and sheriff. The Board of Commissioners is exploring raises for elected officials, as those base salaries have reportedly not been increased since 1993. Expect elected official salaries to be a topic of conversation in the New Year, and a potential factor when the board starts work on the 2027 budget next summer.

4. The sheriff’s department remains the big spender

Of the general fund budget, $3,140,117 (17 percent) is earmarked for the Leelanau County Sheriff’s Office. That’s up from the $2,933,981 in last year’s initial budget, which was up 6 percent compared to 2024. (The amended budget for the department in 2025 shows $3,095,252 in sheriff's office spending.)

The second biggest spender is the the jail division, with a budget of $2,694,590, compared to the amended 2025 budget amount of 2,440,213.00. No other single department even cracks $1 million, but the Board of Commissioners ($927,631), the prosecuting attorney’s office ($821,207), and the equalization department ($596,418) round out the top five.

5. There are still a few lingering question marks

The board approved the new budget without making up its mind on a few major variables, including the county’s health insurance plan. As the Leelanau Ticker reported last month, Leelanau County has a self-funded employee health insurance plan. The county pays the majority of health claims from employees on its own, but has what is called stop loss insurance to protect itself against from particularly large claims.

As Dyer noted at Tuesday’s meeting, the county is facing “an unexpected 50 percent increase in our health insurance stop loss premium,” which has the board exploring alternatives to keep spending in check.

“Addressing this issue required extensive evaluation of alternatives, including increasing the stop loss attachment point, modifying deductibles and drug coverage, exploring pooling options, and considering future fully-insured plans,” Dyer said.

The new budget allocates $2.6 million for health insurance costs, which Dyer previously said would likely be “reasonable to keep benefits as close as we possibly can to what we currently offer.” For reference, the 2025 budget earmarked $1,952,227 for health insurance, while the amended budget indicates spending is now expected to land closer to $2.29 million for the year.

The county’s renewal for its stop loss plan doesn’t come up until February, which gives some extra time to explore alternatives. In the meantime, Dyer said Tuesday that the new budget “appropriates efficient funds to address this issue as we consider renewal of our healthcare plan in February ’26.”

Also still up in the air is the county’s plan for replacing 3-4 patrol vehicles for the sheriff’s office. Dyer had previously proposed leasing those vehicles rather than buying them, mostly as a way to save money for the growing health insurance expenditure. Dyer said Tuesday that the new budget builds in “flexibility regarding vehicle leasing or purchasing, based upon market conditions.”

Finally, some other budgetary line items have been allocated for programs that haven’t been firmly built out yet. One example is the $200,000 in special fundsset aside for a child care voucher system. Commissioners have discussed such a program in multiple meetings, but will need to design and approve a specific plan.

All 2026 budget documents can be reviewed here.