By Kevin Boneske
Staff Writer
ASHWAUBENON – Village residents will have the opportunity to speak at a public hearing Nov. 26 on the proposed 2020 Ashwaubenon village budget, which calls for an increase in both the overall tax levy and mill rate.
At a joint meeting Tuesday, Nov. 12, of the Ashwaubenon village board and Finance and Personnel Committee, both backed a budget for next year calling for a municipal tax levy of $12,558,518, an increase of $10,297 from the previous year.
Village Manager Allison Swanson and Finance Director Greg Wenholz appeared at the meeting to present next year’s budget, for which the municipal tax rate is projected at $5.68 per $1,000, an increase of 6 cents from the previous year with the village’s assessment ratio being 95.25 percent of market value.
Of the total proposed tax levy, Wenholz noted $9,812.237 (78.1 percent) is for the general fund, $1.545,800 (12.3 percent) is for referendum bonding, $675,000 (5.4 percent) is for capital projects, $500,481 (4 percent) is for debt service and $25,000 (0.2 percent) is for special revenue.
In putting together the tax levy, Wenholz said the first thing he looked at is the village’s debt service commitments.
“We set the levy at $12,558,518, and from there we kind of work backwards,” he said. “The first commitments are debt service. We have to pay those. Those are for all the projects that have been approved in the past, from Oneida Street through more recently Mike McCarthy Way, etc.”
From there, Wenholz said capital projects are factored into the levy with $675,000 going toward road reconstruction for the annual repaving of roads.
“We don’t bond for that, we don’t borrow for that, and it’s been working since our inception…,” he said. “Those are the two key pieces, debt service and then road (reconstruction), and then from there we kind of do everything else.”
Based on the average value of a home in the village having an assessed value of $159,200, Wenholz said the property tax payment to the village would be around $911 with the proposed tax levy.
Excess 2017 funds
Wenholz said the village’s general fund ended 2017 with more than $2.3 million of excess funds due remediation settlements for Klipstine Park, recovered fraud funds and general operations savings with the board committing those funds for future transfers to other funds.
In 2018, he said the village used $1 million to fund the Mike McCarthy Way roadway reconstruction and transferred $250,000 to the village building fund and $240,000 to the employee retirement fund.
Wenholz said the remaining excess funds were proposed to be used by transferring: more than $115,000 to the employee retirement fund; $600,000 to the debt service fund to apply $300,000 in the 2020 budget and another $300,000 in the 2021 budget; $116,866 to the village building fund for the south village hall parking lot; and $35,948 to the parks and recreation capital projects fund to cover additional remediation expenditures at the Klipstine Park/Burger King site.
Without those fund transfers, he said around $900,000 would have to be added to the tax levy or that amount would have to be reduced from the budget.
Swanson said those fund transfers would provide tax relief on debt for both 2020 and 2021, as well as provide funding for one-time needs.
The board and committee backed the transfer of remaining 2017 excess funds as recommended.
General fund
Of the $16,366,951 in budgeted general fund expenditures for next year, an increase of $432,034, the categories with the four largest amounts include $8,446,288 for public safety, followed by $2,610,996 for public works, $2,354,060 for general government and $1,959,617 for parks, recreation and forestry.