Lewis County plans to use roughly $1.8 million in reserve funds for its 2026 budget after a split vote from the Lewis County commissioners approved a new budget without a standard 1% tax increase.
The Lewis County Board of Commissioners approved the final version of the county’s 2026 budget — as well as its predicted property tax levy amounts — during two public hearings Monday morning. The county will not take the 1% property tax revenue increase allowed by state law; however, it will take in additional revenue for an administrative tax refund and for new construction in the county.
The commissioners agreed not to take a 1% revenue increase earlier in the budget process and managed to put together a relatively uncontroversial budget with no staffing increases and minimal use of reserves. However, a last-minute increase in the county’s expected expenses for 2026 put the county over the edge.
The county now expects to use significant reserve funds to shore up next year's budget.
Commissioner Lindsey Pollock changed her tune on the 1% late in the game and voted against approving the 2026 budget. During one of the county’s final budget meetings on Wednesday, Nov 26, Pollock urged the commissioners to take the 1% increase or reduce a transfer from the county roads fund to the sheriff's office to better support roads maintenance.
She continued her opposition through the budget process, speaking against the budget one final time shortly after approval and stating that it will set the county up for a difficult year in 2027.
2026 budget
According to the resolution passed by the county commissioners instituting the county's 2026 budget, the county expects to spend roughly $190.7 million next year while bringing in revenue of approximately $182.4 million. Most of those funds come from fee revenue, grant funding and sources other than property tax.
The $8.3 million gap will be covered by $8.3 million in unused funds from the 2025 budget. According to Lewis County Manager Ryan Barrett, most of those funds are from capital projects stretching into next year. Roughly $1.8 million of that sum will come from the county’s general fund, which is used as the county reserve fund.
As part of its budget, the county also approved the amount of local taxes it would collect for both its general levy and its roads levy.
The Lewis County commissioners elected not to take the state-allowed 1% tax revenue increase this year for either of its property tax levies. As a result, the resolution passed to approve the budget shows that the county will increase its previous year's budget by 0% for both its general levy and roads levy.
“I mean, it seems fairly insignificant, just a few dollars per house, or whatever it came down to,” Swope said toward the end of the budget meeting. “But at this point, every dollar counts. And, you know, we complain about the dramatic increases, and I feel that we would only be adding to that fuel by increasing their taxes even more. At this point, we've got to figure out other ways to get revenue, other than just taxing property owners over and over.”
However, county property taxes may still increase for some as the county budget will get a bump from two other sources. Between the county’s general levy and its roads levy, the county will take in an additional $596,067.87 as part of an administrative refund and, according to a previous estimate from the county, more than $450,000.00 in new construction property taxes.
The administrative refund was triggered by multiple property value settlements between the county and companies in the area. The settlements saw the county agree to lowering the value of multiple properties for future and previous tax years, requiring the county to pay out tax refunds for the amounts over collected. The largest refund went to Darigold Inc.
In Washington state, major changes such as this allow local governments and junior taxing districts to recuperate the money paid out through an administrative refund. The intent is to make the county whole as other property owners would have paid that sum in previous tax years if all properties had been correctly valued.
Secondly, the revenue from new construction is a result of the county assessing newly built properties for their value for the first time. While the state limits property tax revenue to increase by more than 1%, that rule does not apply to new construction, as the county is obligated to set the initial value of a new property or building and begin taxing it at its true and fair value.
Last-minute changes
Last-minute increases to the county’s expected 2026 expenses caused friction toward the end of this year's budget process and led to the use of more of the county’s reserves. It also motivated Pollock to vote against approval of the 2026 budget. The county saw multiple last-minute expense increases, with the largest by far being a $1.2 million increase for the county's insurance payments.
Shortly after the county commissioners approved the budget — Swope and Commissioner Scott Brummer voting in favor and Pollock against — Pollock shared her concerns with the new budget. The commissioner argued the county was using too much of its reserves and failing to properly fund its road maintenance fund, stating that the proposed budget “sets us up for disaster in 2027.”
“Gentlemen, we've made it our goal to not leave disasters for future electeds to solve,” Pollock said. “Rather, we try to deal with them with the here and now.”
The commissioner proposed three courses of action to improve the budget. She first proposed decreasing a $1.4 million fund transfer from the roads budget to the sheriff’s budget by $300,000.
Secondly, she proposed working with the sheriff's office on lobbying and advocacy efforts for jail medical malpractice reform. Lastly, she advocated for developing a public safety sales tax to help fund the county’s sheriff’s office. She took to Facebook shortly after the meeting to post the same requests for the public.
Pollock first pitched the first of those three ideas during a budget meeting the week before on Tuesday, Nov. 25. However, she met stiff opposition from her fellow commissioners and eventually from Lewis County Sheriff Rob Snaza.
Snaza appeared at a Lewis County directors update meeting on Wednesday to push back on any suggestions of reducing his department's budget, highlighting that a $300,000 reduction would likely mean the county law enforcement agency would have to lay off two deputies.
“I'm telling you, $300,000 will cost additional positions,” Snaza said. “We are doing everything we can at the sheriff's office to save county taxpayer money and at the same time to be able to provide law enforcement coverage that our community needs.
At the time, Commissioner Brummer recognized that the county was essentially choosing between funding two aspects of public safety in the quality of its roads and staffing of its law enforcement agency. Brummer ultimately stated he could not approve reducing law enforcement staffing by two deputies.
Swope made a public statement on the county budget during a Lewis County commissioners meeting on Tuesday. The day after the budget was approved, Swope defended the county’s 2026 budget and two key decisions: not raising property taxes and favoring sheriff’s office funding over roads funding.
“The truth is, our budget is not a disaster. It’s a result of months of collaboration, tough conversations and responsible decision making,” Swope said in response to Pollock’s comments. “Our staff worked extremely hard, and we worked together as a team to build a budget that protects services, respects taxpayers and moves Lewis County forward.”
His statement also received support from Brummer, who said the recently-approved budget was “the best possible budget that we can put forward at this time.”
Moving forward
The Lewis County 2026 budget is now balanced and approved, but it will face a challenging first quarter in 2026 as the county has yet to settle multiple bargaining agreements with labor unions that will likely raise the county’s staffing costs significantly.
The county will also be hard pressed to totally fund the sheriff’s office through the entire 2026 budget. Two of the department's deputies are funded by opioid settlement dollars sent to the county. Those funds are expected to run out before the end of 2026.
The county will be expected to make significant changes to the budget in its first budget amendment for 2026.
