County administrator hopes to present the budget next week
County administrator Lance Leonhard said he hopes to have a draft 2024 budget ready for Marathon County supervisors to review at their Sept. 26 meeting, but he acknowledged last week that it’s going to be “a challenge” to meet that deadline.
Leonhard gave a budget update to the Human Resources, Finance and Personnel Committee at its Sept. 13 meeting, which also included a lengthy discussion about the capital improvement projects proposed for next year.
The administrator said department heads are doing an “exceptional job” of helping him prepare the budget, but the implementation of a new accounting program, Workday, is causing some delays in the process. As of last week Wednesday, Leonhard said he was two-thirds of the way through his meetings with department heads.
In putting the budget together, Leonhard said the administration is following priorities established by the board earlier this year, such as not adding any new positions that would be paid for with tax dollars. Leonhard said a number of departments are going a step further by leaving vacant positions unfilled.
Department heads have also been tasked with reviewing the fees charged for various services, with a goal of increasing overall revenue by 1.5 percent in next year’s budget, he said.
Leonhard said one of the biggest challenges this year has been providing more chances for board members to provide input on the budget development process.
“You will have the opportunity, through the way we’re presenting this, to be more hands-on with some pretty important policy decisions,” he told supervisors.
As an example, he said the board will be able to decide what to do with settlement money from opioid manufacturers, which will create an 18-year revenue stream. The county’s Criminal Justice Coordinating Council has been reviewing options for spending that money and is finalizing its recommendations this week, he noted.
“My budget won’t allocate a single nickel of those settlement funds,” Leonhard said. Committee chairman John Robinson suggested that Leonhard give the board a progress report on the budget at its Sept. 21 educational meeting, leaving open the possibility that the proposal may not be ready for the following Tuesday’s meeting. “To have a meaningful discussion with the board, it’s important to have that document,” he said. Even if the budget isn’t presented right away on Sept. 26, Leonhard said it will still be ready earlier than during any of his previous years as administrator. He said there should be plenty of time for a “more deliberative and meaningful process” than in years past.
Board chairman Kurt Gibbs said he wants to “temper expectations” about the budget’s arrival time, especially with the additional work created by the Workday implementation.
“It is not due to lack of effort,” he said.
Other business
Corporation counsel Michael Puerner and county treasurer Connie Beyersdorff gave the committee a progress report on their efforts to seize tax-delinquent properties or at least collect money owed by the owners. Puerner said notices have been sent to 37 property owners, warning them that the county plans to pursue legal action, and the treasurer’s office has started work on notifying a second batch of 177 tax-delinquent owners.
Beyersdorff said two of the initial 37 property owners came in and settled their debts, and another 11 from the second batch paid off their obligations, bringing a total of $143,000.
“We’re making good progress,” Puerner said.
Deputy administrator Chris Holman discussed changes he’s made to the list of potential capital improvement projects for 2024, noting ones that have been scaled back or put in the “not funded” category for right now. The cost of the largest single project – a renovation of the county’s Lake View Drive campus in Wausau – has been reduced by $1.1 million to about $3.9 million. No action was taken by the committee.
