From left, Washington County Commissioners Charlie Schilling, Eddie Place and Greg Nohe unanimously approved the over $25 million 2026 appropriations budget during a meeting Wednesday. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

The Washington County Commission passed the over $25 million 2026 appropriations budget during a meeting Wednesday.

The commission, which usually meets on Thursday, held its regular meeting on Wednesday this week to avoid the Christmas holiday.

The commissioners unanimously approved the budget.

“This has been a pretty standard budget when it comes to all the processes and departments,” Commission President Charlie Schilling said. “I am very happy with the budget.

“In my five years here, this is as good of a budget as I have ever seen. It is a balanced budget and will not have to dip into our ($2.2 million) budget stabilization account in any way, shape or form. That is a good thing.”

Schilling said the budget focuses on the county’s priorities with its departments including Public Safety, Children’s Services, Jobs and Family Services and so on.

“We are not really seeing any new expenses, but we are seeing inflation,” Schilling said. “We are seeing these things we have to consider while moving forward.”

They are looking at projected revenues with money being brought in with the sales tax which is the primary driver of their budget.

Commissioner Eddie Place said they did a lot of work on the budget.

“It looks like it is pretty much balanced,” he said. “I’m happy with it.”

The county also saw an “uptick” in sales tax revenues.

Schilling said the county had a $9.3 million carryover from 2025 going into 2026. This time last year the carryover was over $11 million, but with inflation and other issues they have had to deal with. Those included a $1.5 million investment the commission approved last March for the Southeastern Ohio Port Authority to purchase the former AMP-Ohio Gorsuch Site with the goal of creating a multimodal transportation hub that will provide a critical link between the Ohio River, the railroad, and State Route 7.

Schilling said the differences in last year’s carryover and this year’s signifies “efficiency.”

“It also signifies our support for economic development and what that can build within our region when it comes to businesses expanding, businesses locating here and workforce production,” Schilling said. “It shows that within this budget that was a good investment.”

The budget also includes a 3% cost of living raise for county employees.

“We are happy to present that as well,” Schilling said.

With grants and other funding, commissioners said they were able to do upgrades to HVAC systems, plumbing and electric within the Washington County Courthouse, the Children’s Services Building and the County Home over the last several years.

Future plans include building out a new space for the magistrate in a space that used to be occupied by the Building Department at the main entrance of the courthouse. Officials said that is really the one capital project they want to do soon.

Schilling credited elected officials and department heads for working on their budgets and keeping issues like inflation, revenues and expenditures in mind as they came up with their budgets.

The commission also approved a letter of support to the Buckeye Hills Regional Council’s application to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Brownfield Assessment Grant. The council has already done $3.5 million in assessments and they were applying for another round of funding.

“That application can bring them funding to do assessments,” Schilling said of properties like abandoned gas stations which could have contaminants that need remediation.

“This money would allow them to study that site and understand what the remediation process would look like and develop a plan to deal with it,” he said.

The commission also approved a number of money transfers, totaling around $75,000, to balance out accounts at the end of the year, Schilling said of payroll and insurance.

“That is pretty typical for this time of the year,” he said. “We moved some money around to make sure everything was balancing out.”

Contact Brett Dunlap at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com