Sheriff and Jail Consume 42 Cents of Every General Fund Doll

# Sheriff and Jail Consume 42 Cents of Every General Fund Dollar in Price County

A line-by-line look at the April 2026 county budget shows where the money actually goes — and where it doesn’t

Last updated: May 2026

Price County’s April 2026 executive summary tells a story the county board rarely puts in plain language: for every dollar the General Fund spends on county departments, 42 cents goes to the sheriff’s office and the jail.

Not to roads. Not to public health. Not to land conservation or forestry or veterans services. To law enforcement and incarceration.

The numbers come from the county’s own monthly financial report, provided to Price County Fun in response to a public records request. They are not estimates or projections. They are year-to-date actuals through April 2026, audited and published by the Price County Office of Administration.

The Numbers

The General Fund is the county’s main operating account. Through April 2026, it had spent $3,317,971 on departmental operations. Of that:

Sheriff’s Office: $933,009 (28.1% of departmental spending)
Jail: $612,277 (18.5% of departmental spending)
Combined: $1,545,286 — 46.6% of General Fund departmental spending

The next closest department is Insurance at $772,842 (23.3%), which includes the county’s health insurance fund , a separate story entirely. After that, no single department cracks $200,000.

For context, here is what several other departments received through April:

Department	YTD Spending	Share of Total
Sheriff	$933,009	28.1%
Jail	$612,277	18.5%
Insurance	$772,842	23.3%
Human Resources	$87,412	2.6%
Public Health	$43,659	1.3%
Veterans Services	$21,622	0.6%
Land Conservation	$7,187	0.2%
Forestry	$1,538	0.05%

The sheriff’s office alone spends more than Public Health, Veterans Services, Land Conservation, Forestry, Zoning, Planning, and Animal Control combined. Add the jail, and law enforcement spending exceeds every other department in the county put together.

What the Sheriff’s Money Buys

The annual sheriff’s budget is $2,693,605. Through April, 34.6% of that had been spent , roughly on pace for a full-year draw. The jail, with an annual budget of $1,642,639, had spent 37.3% , slightly ahead of pace, which is typical for a facility that operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

What the budget does not break out in detail is what that $2.7 million actually funds. Personnel costs—salaries, benefits, overtime—dominate sheriff’s budgets in rural Wisconsin. Vehicle fleets, radio systems, training, and liability insurance make up most of the rest. The county’s insurance fund is a separate line item—but questions have been raised about whether taxpayer funds in the WCMIC escrow account have been used to pay settlements or legal fees in defamation lawsuits brought by Sheriff Bryan Schmidt against private citizens. Those questions remain unresolved.

The Jail: A Fixed Cost That Only Grows

The jail budget is harder to cut than most people realize. State regulations require minimum staffing ratios. Federal inmates . Price County houses prisoners for other jurisdictions as a revenue source , require specific facility standards. Medical costs for inmates are the county’s legal responsibility.

At 37.3% spent through April, the jail is consuming its budget slightly faster than the calendar would suggest. That could reflect medical emergencies, overtime for staffing shortages, or maintenance costs for an aging facility. The executive summary does not break jail spending down further.

What the report does show is that law enforcement is not just the county’s largest expense , it is the only department pair that, combined, is a majority share of discretionary General Fund spending.

What Isn’t Getting Funded

The budget tells you what a government values. Here is what Price County is not spending money on:

Land Conservation: $7,187 through April. Annual budget: $66,558. Price County has roughly 91,000 acres of county forest land, 83 lakes, and the Flambeau River watershed. The department responsible for protecting all of that has a budget smaller than the sheriff’s monthly vehicle fuel bill.

Forestry: $1,538 through April. Annual budget: $3,500. This is not a typo. The county’s forestry department , overseeing the timber program that generates hundreds of thousands in annual revenue , has a departmental General Fund allocation of $3,500. The timber revenue itself flows through a separate fund (which dropped 38.9% in March 2026), but the administrative capacity to manage it runs on $3,500.

Public Health: $43,659 through April. Annual budget: $109,518. In a county dealing with opioid addiction, an aging population, and the aftermath of a pandemic, the public health department gets less than 5% of what the sheriff’s office receives.

Veterans Services: $21,622 through April. Annual budget: $72,063. Price County has over 1,300 veterans. Their services office operates on less than the jail spends in a week.

The Opioid Settlement: $624K Sitting Unspent

Perhaps the most striking comparison is with the opioid settlement money. Price County has been projected to receive $624,111 from pharmaceutical companies by 2038 as part of Wisconsin’s share of the national opioid settlement. As of April 2026, the executive summary shows zero dollars spent from the Opioid Settlement fund.

A county that spends $1.5 million on law enforcement and incarceration in four months has not spent a single dollar of opioid settlement money in the same period. The county formed an opioid settlement committee in April to decide how to allocate the funds. But through April, the money sits.

Meanwhile, AODA (Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse) placements , the county’s existing spending on addiction treatment , had consumed $98,621 through April on an annual budget of just $286,000. The county is spending on the consequences of addiction through the sheriff and jail. It is not yet spending the settlement money designed to address the causes.

Context: How Does Price County Compare?

Rural counties across Wisconsin spend disproportionately on law enforcement. A 2023 analysis by the Wisconsin Policy Forum found that sheriff and jail costs typically consume 25-35% of county General Fund spending. Price County’s 42% is well above that range.

The reasons are structural. Small counties have fixed costs , a sheriff must be elected, a jail must be staffed , that do not scale down with population. Price County has roughly 14,100 residents. Milwaukee County has roughly 900,000. Both need a jail. Both need a sheriff. But Milwaukee can spread those costs across a much larger tax base.

What makes Price County’s number notable is the gap between the 42% spent on law enforcement and the single-digit percentages going to departments that address the root causes of many law enforcement calls , addiction, mental health, poverty, housing.

What the Cash Position Means

The General Fund had a cash balance of $10,634,010 in April 2026, down 11.2% from April 2025. Revenue is exceeding expenditures so far this year , the county took in $5.24 million and spent $3.71 million through April. But the “use of fund balance” line in the revenue table shows $4.22 million budgeted and $0 collected. That means the county plans to use savings to cover roughly 39% of planned revenue. When that money is drawn down, the cash balance will fall.

A county that draws down savings to fund operations while spending 42 cents of every departmental dollar on law enforcement is making a statement about priorities , whether it intends to or not.

Questions Worth Asking

What would it take to reduce the jail population through alternatives to incarceration, and how much could the county save?
Is the sheriff’s office staffed at levels appropriate for a county of 14,100 people, or has staffing grown beyond what the population justifies?
Why has the opioid settlement committee not allocated any money four months into the year?
If the county devoted even 10% of the sheriff-and-jail budget to preventive services , addiction treatment, mental health, housing support , what would the long-term return on that investment look like?
A proposal before the county board has raised questions about whether taxpayer funds in the WCMIC escrow account were used to pay settlements or legal fees in defamation lawsuits brought by Sheriff Schmidt. The insurance fund’s $772,842 expenditure includes health insurance, liability, and workers’ compensation—the budget does not break out what share, if any, is driven by litigation related to the sheriff’s office. That question deserves a public answer.

The budget does not answer these questions. But it makes clear that they need to be asked , publicly, and with numbers attached.

This article is part of Price County Fun’s ongoing coverage of county government finances. See also: Price County Has $624,000 in Opioid Settlement Money. A New Committee Decides How to Spend It. and our Price County Board coverage.

Sources

Price County April 2026 Executive Summary, obtained via public records request
Price County 2026 Adopted Budget, Office of Administration
U.S. Census Bureau, Population Estimates Program (PEP) — Price County, Wisconsin
Wisconsin Policy Forum, 2023 County Expenditure Analysis
Who Pays? The WCMIC Escrow, Sheriff Schmidt’s Lawsuits, and Price County’s Transparency Question (investigation ongoing—the connection between insurance costs and sheriff’s litigation has not been confirmed)
Price County Has $624,000 in Opioid Settlement Money. A New Committee Decides How to Spend It.

For more, see how Price County will spend its opioid settlement funds.
For more, see Price County’s self-insured health plan started the year underwater.
For more, see Town of Emery postpones its 2026 Board of Review.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much of Price County’s budget goes to the sheriff?

The Price County Sheriff’s Office and jail together consume approximately 42 cents of every general fund dollar, making it the single largest category of county spending.

What does the Price County jail budget cover?

The jail budget covers staff salaries, inmate housing, food, medical care, facility maintenance, transportation, and administrative costs for the detention center.

How does Price County’s sheriff spending compare to other Wisconsin counties?

Rural Wisconsin counties typically spend 30-50% of their general fund on law enforcement and corrections. Price County’s share falls within this range but is on the higher end due to jail operating costs.

Are there alternatives to reduce sheriff and jail costs?

Some Wisconsin counties have reduced costs through jail consolidation, electronic monitoring for low-risk offenders, increased use of diversion programs, and shared services agreements with neighboring counties.