August 5, 2026 – West Bend, Wi – Washington County families are being squeezed from every direction, and most of the pressure seems to be coming from decisions outside of their control. Since 2021, rising property-tax bills and regulated utility rates have already outrun what ordinary households can absorb.
Now a new countywide EMS levy threatens to add still more.
Start with property taxes. An average home valued at $250,000 in 2021 has seen its assessment climb to as much as $400,000 over the last five years. While that seems like a good thing, that higher value is then taxed at rates that have been increasingly inflated by local decisions.
West Bend’s new fire station is projected to cost the average homeowner roughly $78 a year for more than two decades.
The West Bend School District’s 2024 facilities referendum added another $1.02 per $1,000 of value—hundreds of dollars annually for many households.
County government has largely held its own levy in check, yet overall bills still rose because schools and municipalities did not.
Reassessments simply amplified every increase.
Utilities moved in the same direction. WE Energies layered on multiple base-rate hikes, including a sizable 2023 jump and approved increases that added roughly $7–10 a month to typical electric bills in both 2025 and 2026. In West Bend, sewer rates rose more than 35 percent in mid-2024 and another 8 percent in 2025; water rates, unchanged since 2021, jumped nearly 22 percent.
Now comes the latest proposal: a countywide EMS funding system that would impose a new dedicated property-tax levy of approximately $3.5 million a year—about 12 cents per $1,000 of assessed value, or roughly $50 annually on a $400,000 home.
Officials say the money would stabilize local fire and EMS departments facing doubled call volumes, volunteer shortages, and state levy limits. The plan claims to preserve local control while shifting taxing authority to the county.
In practice it risks becoming a permanent new tax layered on top of everything else.
Some municipalities have already paused support, citing incomplete details and unexplored alternatives such as greater use of existing county sales-tax revenue.
Add it up. Property-tax growth measured in the hundreds of dollars, utility increases of similar magnitude, and now a potential new EMS levy produce a combined annual hit that can easily exceed $1,000 for many families.
Meanwhile, a typical full-time employee can realistically hope for only a 2–3 percent wage or salary increase in a good year. That modest raise is more than swallowed up by the rising cost of living in Washington County—before food, gasoline, insurance, healthcare, or any other expense is considered. Fixed-income households fare even worse.
Residents are not opposed to reliable emergency services. They are opposed to being treated as an unlimited revenue source. Washington County has been taxed enough already.
Before any new levy is locked in, every official who touches our property-tax bills and utility rates must prove the spending is necessary, the alternatives have been exhausted, and the burden is truly affordable for working families.
Chris Thompson
West Bend, Wi
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