County board to vote on 2023 budget
Oct. 31—EAU CLAIRE — After a month of reviewing the recommendations, the Eau Claire County Board will vote to approve the budget for 2023 tonight.
The county board first received County Administrator Kathryn Schauf's recommended budget at its Oct. 4 meeting. Since then, the board has been reviewing the recommendation and asking questions about where funding is being allocated and what changes could be made.
As it stands, Schauf's recommended budget is balanced at $140.7 million, meaning revenues match the projected annual expenditures for all operations and capital.
Eau Claire County is projected to end 2022 with outstanding debt totaling $96.97 million, with no additional debt issues anticipated for 2022. The projected debt service levy for 2023 will be $15.1 million, an increase of $500,000 (3.20%) from $14.6 million in 2022, according to county documents.
The county's debt service levy in 2023 is projected to be 36.4% of the county's total levy, exceeding the county's debt management limit of 30%. A $30 million additional debt increase is due to the investment of the new Highway Facility.
"While the County has the borrowing capacity under Wisconsin Statutes and County code to incur considerably more debt, the resulting increasing debt service payments are becoming a concern," the budget recommendation states. "The Finance and Budget Committee will be developing a 10-year debt management strategy to reduce debt issues year-over-year and provide guidance on what should be financed by debt."
The recommended budget also features a decline in the overall levy rate from $3.97 to $3.69 per $1,000 of equalized value. This means a property valued at $100,000 will be taxed $369. The tax levy has two components, operating and debt, and supplies an average of 40% of local government revenue across the state.
The 2023 tax levy is projected to be below the state average of $3.80/$1,000.
Additionally, the administrator's recommended budget sees a significant decrease in operations and capital expenditures from 2022-2023. This decrease is a result of the additional spending for ARPA and the new Highway facilities in 2022.
County sales tax revenues are budgeted at $12.1 million for 2023 and 32.37% of the total expenditures budget are contributed to the cost of wages and benefits, with the county recommending 635 full-time equivalents for 2023.
Amendments
The board will also consider amendments proposed by the Finance and Budget Committee that would alleviate the amount of borrowing for 2023.
Two amendments up for consideration include moving bonding to American Rescue Plan funding.
The proposed amendments would eliminate $1,920,438 from general government funding, $1,205,698 of Culture and Recreation funds and $458,300 of Conservation and Economic Development funds from bonding and be considered for ARPA funding.
An amendment approved by the finance committee would create four patrol deputy positions in the county's Sheriff's Department. Funding for these positions could potentially come from the county's general fund.
Other amendments for consideration
* Eliminating 4.5 new FTE in Department Human Services Crisis Program
* Eliminating FTE positions in DHS so there is a levy net savings of $250,000
* Eliminating DHS contracted service with Alia totaling $110,000 in expenditure savings
* Eliminating the creation of a culture and relationships coordinator and using the $95,300 in the facilities department to fund an $86,000 circuit court door lock project
* Installing a cyber security specialist with a fiscal impact of $114,154
Members of the public are encouraged to attend and provide their input on the proposed budget at tonight's meeting during a public hearing.
If the budget is not approved during the board's regular meeting time, a special meeting will be held tomorrow at 1 p.m in the Eau Claire County Courthouse.
Additional budget information, including the administrator's full recommendation, can be found on the county website.
