The sales tax in Island County will be a little higher beginning in April.

In a 2-1 vote during a special meeting Monday, Island County commissioners adopted a one-tenth of 1% sales tax for criminal justice purposes. The tax is expected to raise nearly $2 million a year, but the county will only receive an estimated $1.4 million next year since the tax won’t start until a quarter of the way into the year.

The sales tax helps balance the county’s budget, which the commissioners also adopted in a 2-1 vote Monday.

Commissioner Janet St. Clair said the tax sets up a dedicated funding source for law and justice departments since revenues in the current expense funds have eroded over time. In addition, she said the state Supreme Court’s decision about public defense caseloads will mean dramatic increases in that cost.

“The burden falls on the county and we could not meet the state mandate without this decision,” said St. Clair, pointing out that the state pays only a small percentage of the public defense costs.

Commissioner Jill Johnson, however, argued that the revenues from the sales tax were actually being used to supplant other expenses in the budget and only $200,000 is being used for new criminal justice spending. She said “dramatic increases” in public defense costs aren’t included in the 2026 budget but may play out over the following years. She asserted that revenues from the new sales tax should be banked for use in future years and that the county shouldn’t have funded any new jobs.

“I’m not in favor of this particular budget,” she said, “and I’m also not in favor of passing this particular tax in the way that we used it in this particular budget.”

Resident Tom Walker was the only member of the public to comment on the tax or the budget. He explained that he was recently involved in an event to raise funds for food banks to help others in the community cope with growing expenses.

“It’s not a long line to draw between affordability and an increased sales tax, even though food is not taxed, everything else is,” he said. “So an increase in the cost of living caught my attention.”

As a result of the increase, the sales tax rate in unincorporated Island County will rise to 8.9% in April, while Oak Harbor’s rate will be 9.1%. A rate increase will put Island County’s rates above cities in Skagit County; nearby Anacortes has a rate of 8.8%, and Burlington has a rate of 8.7%. In Snohomish County, on the other hand, Lynnwood’s sales tax rate in 10.6%, according to the Washington State Department of Revenue.

County Budget Director Susan Geiger presented the budget, explaining that the board discussed it over 11 work sessions and spent more than 32 hours talking about it. At the beginning of the process, the board was looking at a $1.3 million deficit for the 2026 current expense fund, which covers law and justice and most other departments besides roads and solid waste.

The total budget adopted was $164.7 million, which is much larger than normal because of a change in accounting practices regarding real estate excise taxes. Without the transfer of those REET funds, the budget would be $137.7 million for 2026, which is less than the $141.5 million budget for 2025. The current expense fund is $37.6 million for 2026.

Geiger explained that some of the challenges that faced commissioners in balancing the budget included an increase in medical insurance costs for employees and a giant jump in the cost of property and liability insurance. A 25% increase in insurance is included in the budget, but the actual hike turned out to be 35%.

In addition, Johnson pointed out that the board can only increase property tax collections each year by 1% because of state law, while the actual increase in the cost of operations is much more than that.

Under the 2026 budget, the county has 507.64 full-time-equivalent employees, which is a decrease of 6.41 FTEs over the 2025 budget. Among the cuts was the entire county administrator department, which consisted of the highly paid administrator and two other employees.

The budget allocates $1 million towards the ongoing efforts to build a new jail and another $1 million to move the Elections Office.

In her comments, Johnson said this was the first time she voted against a county budget. She said her main concern was that the budget doesn’t plan for known cost increases in the future, which includes public defense as well as the adoption of a vehicle leasing program for the sheriff’s office.

She also discussed the future need to raise salaries for some employees. Referring to the recent increase in wages at Island Transit, she pointed out that professionals in the clerks office as well as paralegals in the prosecutor’s office make $6 or $7 an hour less than bus drivers.

“But the worry really significantly is that we have a 2027 budget disaster because the tax we took needed to cover those escalating costs,” she said.

In addition, she was critical of the decision to release a hiring freeze and hire new employees.

St. Clair agreed that the commissioners may face tough decisions next year but that the commissioners and staff worked together to create a budget that provides the community with a certain level of service.

Commissioner Melanie Bacon said she was very proud of the budget and proud of everyone who participated in creating it.

“It is a zero increase in staffing next year and actually a decrease in benefit costs for next year,” she said. “I think that’s good for us. We couldn’t have expected anything better than that.”