Tax rate to drop

County spending is up, but the overall county tax rate is projected to drop significantly under the 2024 budget approved by county board members at their Oct. 25 meeting.

The county budget calls for a total 2024 levy of $14,163,739, which is up from $13,378,540 in the levy from 2023. The county saw a huge 24.4% jump in equalized value which will bring the county portion of the tax rate down from $7.89 per $1,000 of equalized value last year to $6.71 per $1,000 of equalized value for tax bills to be sent out this December.

The budget calls for overall spending to increase 8.45% from $29.86 million budgeted in 2023 to $32.39 million proposed for 2024. However there was also a sizable jump in revenues. Non-local See COUNTY on page 12 Prior to voting to close the TID, council members voted to recommend using a state law that allows TIDs to be extended by one year to help fund housing expansion projects.

Under the Affordable Housing Extension, 75% of the money needs to be used for low to moderate income housing the remaining 25% can be used for any residential housing in the city. The city has used this extension with other recently closed TIDs using money retained to provide assistance to housing projects on Pep’s Drive and for people building additional multi-family homes in the city.

Under TIDs, property taxes collected in the district which would normally be split with the county, school district and technical college district are frozen at the level when the district is formed. The city keeps the full amount of taxes on improvements in those areas. This is primarily a financing tool to pay for roads, utilities and other development expenses outlined in the district’s project plan and approved by a joint board of review. The housing extension does not require joint review board approval.

The city of Medford has used TIDs extensively for specific targeted areas tied to projects and has been overall successful in using them as a development tool.

According to Harris, the city is looking to primarily use the funds from the extension to help with loan financing of the workforce housing project currently under construction by Commonwealth on Progressive Ave. just north of Northcentral Technical College.

Harris reported that the first building on that project has gone up with the goal of getting additional buildings enclosed before winter. It is slated to be completed and ready for tenants in late summer 2024.

In other business council members:

Received the annual audit report with the city’s finances receiving a clean bill of health. The audit presented Monday provides a snapshot of city finances as of the end of 2022. Stuart Randall of CLA, the city’s auditors, noted the city had about $7.4 million in reserves at the end of 2022 with $3.1 million unassigned and $1.4 million assigned for specific projects. Randall praised the city’s fiscal responsibility in maintaining a healthy fund balance and noted the industry benchmark for fund balance is 20-25% of operations. “You are at close to 100%,” Randall said, noting many other cities would be jealous of being in that financial position. He also updated the council on accounting changes that are in the works regarding subscription-based information technology arrangements and compensated absences regarding accrued sick and vacation time.

Recommended the city adopt a change to its records retention file to allow the city to store files on microfilm and electronically rather than in paper format. According to Lemke, this will make the city less dependent on paper files while also making it easier to find files and information through an electronic system.

Discussed the upcoming employee recognition lunch where the milestone employees are recognized. It will be held at noon on Dec. 7 at city hall. City council members were invited to make suggestions for food options and a decision would be made at a future meeting for which caterer to use for it.

Met in closed session to discuss employee benefi ts and wages. There was nothing reported from the closed session at this time.

A special council meeting was held following the committee of the whole meeting to begin the process to replace Brooke Klingbeil as the city’s Wasterwater Treatment Plant Laboratory Director. Klingbeil has accepted a position at Wisconsin Rural Water Association as an EPA Wastewater Quality Action Specialist and will be leaving city employment after 10 years. During that time, the city has expanded the duties of the position to include water testing for the county, private residents and other municipalities. Council members approved a new job description for the position with those additional duties in it and approved moving forward with the hiring process. There are three full-time staff who work in the wastewater treatment facility.