Portage County Board establishes debt ceiling

PORTAGE COUNTY - Expressing a desire to ease the implementation of county projects over the next several years while keeping spending in check, the Portage County Board passed a debt management policy on Jan. 21, the first of its kind in the county.
The policy as revised by the board establishes a maximum outstanding debt limit of $140 million for Portage County, or $200k per capita.
Supervisor David Ladick proposed the amendments, which along with minor revisions to the document’s phrasing for clarity raised the proposed debt ceiling by 0.25%.
“I’ve thought about this a long time, and I really don’t see that anything less than [a debt limit of 1.5% of the county’s total equalized value] is going to be very effective,” said Ladick. “We want to make sure that we only set this once, and we’re going to live by this. We don’t want to change this a year from now, when we’re bumping up the upper limit.”
The maximum debt limit allowable by the state per county is 5% of that county’s total equalized value. At 1.5%, Portage County would sit at 30% of the maximum number allowed by the state, on par with Wood County, which just completed a highway construction project, according to Ladick.

Portage County Finance Director Jennifer Jossie explained that this policy would provide the county the room it may need to fund projects that it has planned over the next 20-year period but noted that the county does not yet have the project costs required to propose a formal budget.
“What I can tell you is what the debt limits that are set allow for, in comparison. The [initially proposed] 1.25% is approximately $116-$117 million, and the [revised proposal] 1.5% is just shy of $140 million of outstanding debt limit, so at any point in time, that is what your outstanding debt limit could be up to.
“Now, keep in mind that the schedule that we’ve laid out over a 20-year period, we have other things that we have planned for, like highway projects and capital improvements. We probably need about $20 million of that to just continue to do that type of work so that we have the revenue necessary to repay the debt service on those initiatives and projects, so at any given point in time, that is what you would have as your max.
“Keep in mind that as you borrow money, you will pay it off, and then we will borrow additional debt for additional projects and start to pay off those schedules. When you have projects this size… you don’t go out and issue $125 million dollars. You do it in pieces when you need the funds to pay for the projects. So if you issue $20 million to pay for the design and the startup, you would probably pay that back before you issue the next,” said Jossie.
Supervisor Matt Jacowski backed the decision, saying that the county has been “tripping over a $100 bill to pick up a $1 bill” and that trying to pinch pennies now will cost the county more money in the long run when factoring in inflation.
“If we have a little more leeway in [the county’s allowable spending], it can [complete] projects quicker,” he said. “Thirty percent debt load of what the state allows, that is not a bad thing. Forty percent isn’t a bad thing. You know, you look at a lot of businesses – they would be happy to carry a debt load like that. I just think it makes sense to go with the little larger amount and give ourselves some cushion so we’re not having this discussion a year from now, six months from now, two years from now, whenever that may come.”
Supervisor Vinnie Miresse criticized the policy, saying, “Going up to 1.5% [from 1.25%] puts the taxpayers in a pretty dangerous predicament which I will be unwilling to support.”
The motion to amend the policy carried, with Miresse and Supervisor Andrew Rockman voting nay.
A vote to approve the policy itself also carried, with Miresse voting nay.
The officially revised policy is available to view to the public on the county’s website.

Appointments
Other motions carried by the board included the reappointment of Portage County Library Board Citizen Members Amanda Freberg and Holly Petrillo; the reappointment of Joan Honl to the South Central Library System Board; the appointment of Michael Kostuch as a citizen member of the Veterans Service Commission; the appointments of Chris Scott and Robert Welling as citizen members of the Ad Hoc Committee for the Portage County Health Care Center; and the appointment of Portage County Justice Programs Director Courtney Kosuchowski.
Welling’s appointment was criticized by Supervisor Matt Jacowski, who expressed disappointment in “the biased showing from the Executive/Operations Committee” during their Jan. 7 meeting. Regardless, all motions passed unanimously.

Land use
Also approved by the board were an authorization for the county to grant an easement to the Wisconsin Public Service Corporation for the purpose of installing a new gas line in Stockton; an amendment of the Portage County Zoning Ordinance Map to change the zoning classification of 20.45 acres of land from A2 Agricultural Transition to A3 Low-Density Agricultural; the adoption of an updated version of the Portage County Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan as a guide for future recreation improvements; a formal request to the Wisconsin DNR “to provide continued eligibility for participation in cost-sharing programs for the next five years;” and the cancellation of outstanding checks issued prior to Jan. 1, 2024. All motions passed unanimously.

The Portage County Board will meet again on Feb. 18 at 5 p.m.