Clintonville may increase mill rate

The first draft of the proposed 2025 budget for the city of Clintonville includes an increase in the mill rate of $1.83.

City Administrator Caz Muske presented the first draft of the budget to the Clintonville Common Council at its Oct. 8 meeting.

The $1.83 increase in mill rate is comprised of $1.54 increase in the operating tax rate and $0.29 increase in the debt tax rate, and brings the proposed mill rate to $13.55.

The increase e would mean a home valued at $80,000 would see a $146.61 increase in taxes, while a $100,000 home would see a $183.26 increase in taxes, and a $150,000 home would see a $274.89 increase in taxes.

The preliminary budget includes an operating levy of nearly $1,94 million and debt service levy of $917,073.

“Unfortunately, our assessed (property) values continue to decrease,” Muske said. “It decreased by $7 million, so that was a significant hit.”

Muske said the city’s assessor will explain why the city’s assessed property values continue to decrease.

The city is currently working through a property revaluation project that will assess all properties in the city. Muske said the revaluation will hopefully help stabilize the ratio of the city’s residential, commercial and manufacturing properties.

Muske said increases to the city’s operating budget includes 12% increase for city employee salaries and benefits, an estimated 10% health insurance increase, a 6% increase in property insurance, a 4% increase for auto/physical insurance, and a 2% increase in liability insurance. She added that for the city’s IT costs for its Microsoft email accounts and servers, the city had to switch to government rates with Microsoft Office 365. This increased the cost from $8 per month per user to $12 or $25 per month per user, depending on the type of user. The subsidy the city pays for ambulance service increased by 4%.

“That is why you are seeing the increases on the operations side,” Muske said. “And then on the debt levy side, of course, we just went through another borrowing cycle, so you are seeing the increased rates on the additional borrowing that we are seeing with the city.”

A special Finance Committee meeting is scheduled for Oct. 28 at 4 p.m. to go over the proposed budget.

Muske said in the time leading up to the Oct. 28 meeting, the city will receive more specific numbers to plug into the budget.

“We do not anticipate any significant increases other than what you see today,” Muske said.

CIP

The council was also presented an updated Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) to review. Muske told the council that this year the city borrowed for items to be purchased in 2024, 2025, and 2026.

Muske said the city received less CDBG grant funds than expected for its 16th Street and Harriet Street, road and utility projects.

“So, we had to shuffle some projects around, delay some projects to open up some capital to pay for that road and utility project,” Muske said. “In addition to that, some of our DPW (Department of Public Works) equipment came in over budget. We had to switch some things around. We did some consolidation on the equipment earlier this year, however, it wasn’t enough. So, thankfully we were able to work as a team, city leadership, our departments to work together to decide which projects could be delayed, which pieces of equipment could be delayed, and as a result, we have a balanced CIP for 2025 and 2026.”

Items in the CIP for 2027 and beyond are tentative, as funds haven’t been borrowed yet for those projects, Muske said.