Lincoln County's 2026 budget reality

As we finish the 2026 Lincoln County budget, the same themes I’ve consistently written about continue to be front and center: the 1% property-tax cap, runaway insurance costs, unfunded mandates, and a revenue system that simply can’t keep pace with reality.

Washington law limits counties to a 1% increase in property-tax collections each year. That may have sounded reasonable back in 2001, but 1% d...