By Rich Palzewic
Staff Writer

ALLOUEZ – The Allouez village board adopted the 2021 village budget at its Nov. 17 board meeting.

Before the unanimous vote, a public hearing was held, but no one from the community spoke.

Board president Jim Rafter said it was the first time he could remember no one speaking on a proposed budget.

“I’m sure due to COVID-19, and because the meeting was virtual, has something to do with that,” he said. “Or, maybe it’s because we do a good job with things. A great deal of thanks goes out to our village staff for doing an outstanding job, especially during this difficult time, of maintaining expenses and managing with the resources we have.”

The 2021 budget includes a 1-percent decrease in revenues ($7,321,223) from 2020 and a 2-percent increase in expenditures ($7,521,223) from last year.

“Again, we can thank COVID-19 for both a revenue decrease and an expenditures increase,” said Rafter. “Everybody seems to be in the same boat.”

There is a $200,000 difference between the revenues and expenditures with next year’s budget.

“We are going to use the one-time funds from the sale of the community center to make up the difference,” said finance director Julie Beauchamp. “The sales proceeds should be received by the end of 2020, so they’ll be part of general fund balance for 2021.”

The total village levy is $6,693,653, which is $188,058 (2.89 percent) higher than the 2020 budget.

The tax rate is $7.28 for every $1,000 in assessed property.

This is 15 cents higher compared to the tax rate of $7.13 from the previous year.

Stadium tax used up

In 2015, Allouez received $704,677 from the Green Bay/Brown County professional football stadium district sales tax.

A good portion of the funds were used in 2017 to offset additional borrowing for street reconstruction projects and budget relief in subsequent years.

The board unanimously approved allocating the remaining $21,340 for budget relief in the 2021 budget.

“With the $21,340 being allocated for 2021 budget relief, the fund balance from the stadium district sales tax will be

zeroed out,” Rafter said. “We are grateful to have funds still available to use during this difficult time.”

Election audit

Similar to the City of Seymour, Allouez was randomly selected by the Wisconsin Elections Commission to conduct a voting system audit.

Wards 1 and 2, which utilizes the DS-200 optical scan voting system, were selected for the audit.