Tax impacts, costs examined
By Robert Cloud
Heidi Dombrowski, the Waupaca County finance director, updated the county board on plans and potential costs to modernize the courthouse.
She spoke to the Waupaca County Board at its Feb. 20 meeting.
A modernization project subcommittee of the county’s Public Property Committee is currently working with Dimension IV Madison Design Group, an architectural and planning firm.
Dimension IV has estimated the project to cost $35 million to be paid in two phases of borrowing.
The county would borrow about $20 million in the first phase of bonding in 2024 and $15 million in the second phase in 2026.
Dombrowski’s presentation focused on how bonding for the project could affect the county’s future debt payments and tax rate.
In 2025, Waupaca County’s total payments on existing debt service will decrease by approximately $2.07 million, from $3.82 million to $1.75 million annually.
If the county board authorizes issuance of bonds for the modernization project, Waupaca County’s debt payments are estimated to be $2.28 million in 2025, Dombrowski said.
Based on a plan for level debt service payments of about $1.4 million annually, the tax rate for debt service would rise by approximately 3 cents, from 64 cents in 2024 to 67 cents per $1,000 of equalized value in 2025.
The effect on the debt-service tax rate would remain the same even after the second bond is issued.
By 2031, the rate is projected to drop below 60 cents per $1,000 and continue dropping.
A second amortization plan focuses on paying down principal. It has more of an increase in the tax rate – from 64 cents in 2024 to a high of 74 cents per $1,000 of equalized value. The rate for debt service beginning to gradually drop the following year.
Dombrowski said the county pays more up front in the second scenario but saves more on interest.
Waupaca County’s debt service payments would increase by a total of $769,000 over the first three years, but the county would save $1.75 million in interest.
Dombrowski stressed that these numbers are for discussion only, since no floor plan or final design has been approved.
The numbers are also based on changing factors, such as interest rates, construction costs and growth in the property tax base.
Proposed projects
Among the changes to the courthouse, the subcommittee has proposed that the county board room, the jury assembly room and UW-Extension offices be moved from the first floor to the lower level of the courthouse.
The Veterans Service Office and the Aging and Disability Resource Center would move to the first floor, where there would also be an open lobby.
Circuit Court Branch 3 would be relocated to larger space on the third floor and the district attorney’s office would have more space.
Providing security for employees is a major concern of the remodeling project. It will be harder to access floors and departments, where there will be secure vestibules with controlled seating for waiting visitors and bullet-resistant glass and walls.
Changes in the building’s infrastructure have also been proposed.
“The replacement HVAC system will likely include a geothermal heat pump system, closed-loop water-glycol wells for heat transfer to and from the earth,” according to a subcommittee report in January. “For eliminating any negative effect on the environment and groundwater, these systems will heat and cool (air-condition) in roughly equal amounts, and frequently they heat and cool concurrently.”
Fluorescent lights will be replaced with LED light fixtures and the electrical will be upgraded.
Remodeling Finance space
The first remodeling project at the courthouse has already begun.
All staff related to Waupaca County’s fiscal operations will be consolidated into a single space in the lower level of the courthouse.
Currently, four employees of the Finance Office are working in the lower level. Seven more staff, who are now working in Human Services space on the second floor will be moved to the lower level.
The Finance Office project is estimated to cost $1.25 million and Dombrowski said she hopes it will be completed in early October.