Marathon’s proposed budget has 1.8 percent property tax hike
Not much will change with Marathon City’s budget next year, though the village is set to collect 1.8 percent more in property taxes due to new construction adding value to the tax base.
Village administrator Andy Kurtz submitted the first draft of a roughly $2 million budget to the village board last week Wednesday, presenting a multipage spreadsheet with anticipated revenues and expenses in all of the village’s departments. As of right now, the budget includes $6,500 in reserve funds for 2024.
“As it has been in past years, we are pretty much right at that point where we’re break-even, so we’re not spending money out of reserve and we’re not putting a whole lot of money into reserve,” he said. “We’re able to maintain the status quo.”
According to the document, the village’s property tax levy will increase by $15,754 next year, from $915,631 to $931,385. The 1.8 percent hike is allowed under state law because the village grew by that percentage in the form of newly built property.
“That net new construction number is probably amongst the highest in the county,” he said. “It hasn’t been a fabulous growth year for the county in 2023, but we did have positive growth in the community, which allows a little bit more levy room.”
Kurtz also noted that shared revenue from the state will go up by $56,350, to $186,350, as the result of a bill signed by Gov. Tony Evers earlier this year that boosted aid for all municipalities in the state. Going forward, a portion of the state’s sales tax revenues will go into the annual aid payments.
The village is still waiting to find out how much transportation aid it will receive in 2024, but Kurtz expects it to most likely increase under the village’s five-year average of road expenditures.
“The more you spend, the more you get, which seems kind of counterintuitive, but the only way that you get more state aid is to spend more money,” he said.
To complete the budget’s final draft, Kurtz said he is working with the local fire department and new police chief Tyler Geske on finalizing their numbers for next year. He said the board will also need to set wages for 2024 at a future meeting, though he has tentatively included an increase in the rough draft of the budget.
Trustee Jeff Lawerence said he noticed “some pretty significant increases” for public safety and public works in the budget, and questioned the reasoning behind those.
Kurtz said the fire department’s operating expenses and debt payments for a new fire truck are more accurately reflected in next year’s budget, but he described it as “reallocation from one bucket to another.” In regards to public works, he said the additional expenses are for street work planned next year, including “a couple of larger-scale projects on the five-year plan.” Overall, Kurtz said the proposed 2024 budget is not “wildly different” than what the village has previously adopted in recent years.
“Most of the departments are still at zero budget increases, except for a couple of line items which are outside our control – particularly insurance and fuel costs,” he said. “Utility costs have gone up also. So, the discretionary parts of our budget really haven’t changed. It’s the non-discretionary things that we don’t have any control over that we have to pay for.”
In other business:
The board approved the appointment of Andrew Goergen to the village’s board of appeals for a three-year term.
Kurtz told trustees that he met with the town of Stettin to discuss next year’s fire protection contract and he plans to meet with the rest of the covered townships shortly.
The board approved the hiring of Ryan Kage as a new public works employee, based on the recommendation of village officials who interviewed eight applicants the previous week. Kurtz said Kage has experience with electrical, heating and plumbing maintenance at his current job, along with task management.
“He interviewed very well and was very thorough in his answers,” he said.
Kurtz said Cage has accepted a job offer and will start in about two weeks pending a successful background and drug test. His starting wage will be $25 per hour.
The board approved an addendum to its purchasing policy to meet the requirements of a federal Assistance to Firefighters grant recently awarded to the village. Kurtz said the new language adds about 10 pages to the village’s existing policy, but it mostly spells out procedures the village already follows when making purchases. The $157,172 grant will be used to help buy self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) tanks, masks and a highpressure filling station.
