Finance/Administration Committee 2027 Budget Hearings, October 28, 2026

Kenosha County Finance/Administration Committee 2027 Budget Hearings — October 28, 2026. The committee reviewed and approved budgets across departments and heard a Kenosha Area Business Alliance (KABA) update. KABA requested a $12,500 increase in the county contribution to support expanded talent and housing initiatives, and reported receiving a $240,000 state economic-development grant, including relocation incentives of up to $5,000 for as many as 16 recruits. KABA also described county-supported business assistance through high-impact and revolving loan funds, the sale of a Salem Business Park parcel to Saegertown Controls, another parcel under contract, and the county’s contribution to the Uptown Lofts project. The committee approved the KABA budget item. The County Clerk requested support for increasing County Board of Canvassers’ per diem from $100 to $150 per day; administration supported the change, and the approved clerk budget was stated to implement it. The clerk budget also reduces election-supply spending by $30,000 while increasing publication costs by $3,000, mileage by $100, and staff development by $500.

Other budget items included Land Information’s $59,515 contract-related line for SEWRPC and the county surveyor, a $590 increase, and an anticipated $40,000 state grant; its budget was approved. IT presented roughly $3.3 million in data-processing costs, with an increase of about $160,000, including approximately $150,000 for new software requests, and proposed managed Microsoft services; the presentation also discussed rising hardware costs and a future firewall replacement. Human Services budgets included a 3% provider-rate increase totaling about $650,000, building-rent increases for the new facility, and multiple division-specific staffing, grant, and service changes. Brookside Care Center budgeted a $500,000 levy giveback and $1.088 million returned to reserves. Budgets for the listed Human Services divisions and Medical Examiner were approved; a motion to reduce the Medical Examiner’s planned autopsies from 130 to 124 failed for lack of a second. The committee also approved employee-handbook revisions, including changes to IT-related policies and removal of a restriction on sharing county content on personal social media; discussion clarified that confidential or personally identifiable information should not be entered into unapproved AI tools.