Higher Fuel Prices Leading to Budget Worries for State Municipalities Around the State

Wednesday, May 13th, 2026 -- 11:01 AM

(Evan Casey, Wisconsin Public Radio) The high price of fuel is leading to budget worries for some local government leaders around the state.

The war in Iran has been driving up fuel prices, with issues at some domestic refineries adding to the problem. The average price of a gallon of diesel in Wisconsin was $5.76 on Monday, according to AAA.

That’s up about 78 percent from a year ago. The high prices are already becoming an issue for school districts across Wisconsin. Now, the cost of fuel is becoming an issue for counties and municipalities that manage large fleets of vehicles and heavy equipment.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley said fuel prices are 30 percent higher than what was budgeted for this year. If prices stay where they are throughout the year, that could create an $800,000 deficit in the county’s fleet operations budget.

If prices continue to go up, Crowley said that number could reach $1 million. “If we continue to see this rise and nothing changes and we don’t start to see a dip in these fuel costs, that means that we’re going to have to start scaling back some of the non-essential services, particularly around vehicle operations, and figure out how we continue to save money,” Crowley said.

Crowley said county leaders will be working to address the increase. “We have to start planning for the future, and we’ve already started some of those conversations internally as far as what we need to do moving forward,” Crowley said.

In Green Bay, the increase is impacting the city’s Department of Public Works. Chris Pirlot, the operations division director for the department, said their fleet includes tractors, garbage trucks, street sweepers and dump trucks.

Pirlot said the operations division is 4 percent over their projected expenditures for fuel for the year. If prices continue to stay where they are throughout 2026, he estimated they could be 12 to 15 percent over budget. Pirlot said the issue was discussed during a senior staff meeting last week.

“Not that we’re not always doing it, but we have to be very conscious and look at what do we really need to spend, because we don’t know where we’re going with the fuel prices going up,” Pirlot said. “If we’re going to have to spend more on fuel, we’re going to have to spend a little bit less somewhere else, because we want to make the budget balance.”

Pirlot said they often budget for things like fuel costs nearly a year in advance. “And you don’t know what’s going to happen,” Pirlot said. “Of course, we keep our fingers crossed and do our best research, but not everything goes as planned.” Waukesha County Department of Public Works Director Allison Bussler said the county is, “closely monitoring the impact of rising fuel prices.”

“Lower gas prices earlier this year helped offset current increases, and at this point those costs remain manageable within our budget,” Bussler said in a statement. Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson said the increased price of fuel won’t have an impact on the county budget this year.

“So what we’ve done in the past, and what we’ve done for this budget, is we simply allow for unanticipated increases in cost,” Nelson said. “And so our highway department buys (fuel) in bulk, and they will have enough within their budget to pay for all their fuel needs.”

However, Nelson said it could be a different story for next year’s budget. “So if there is an underlying concern, experiencing these very high gas prices, it would be with the coming budget,” Nelson said. But not every local government in Wisconsin is feeling the pinch.

Mark Luberda, county administrator for Walworth County, said the county spends around $840,000 a year on gas and diesel. He said the county has an appropriated contingency of $600,000 a year.

“We anticipate some increases in areas,” Luberda said. “We have contingencies built into our budget. So the nature of this increase is not something we won’t be able to address within the existing budget.”

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