WAUPUN — The Waupun Common Council discussed budgetary and funding concerns at the Committee of the Whole meeting Tuesday afternoon. City Administrator Kathy Schlieve began the report by saying it would be a “fairly difficult conversation” to have.
Schlieve explained that while there’s a consistent pressure for levy increases, the recent expense increases in 2022 were distributed across the city due to municipal growth and did not heavily impact the average homeowner. “Taking on debt very much impacts us,” Schlieve said. “It’s a shifting burden to the local taxpayer.”
Schlieve explained that the City faces a downward movement on capital despite a slight recovery in the previous year. There’s a steady decline on revenues and an increase of expenses which is “fairly flat” when adjusted for inflation, but Schlieve noted, “It is really likely that our increases are going to far surpass our ability to levy.”
“I don’t have the perfect crystal ball because there’s a lot of numbers that are still unknown,” Schlieve said. “But we are working on our best set of assumptions and feeling that we’re going to be in a situation that we’re going to be talking about some reductions.”
Schlieve mentioned some options the City could take to save costs, such as considering short term borrowing solutions to balance things out. To save costs in other areas, the city may be forced to decline some projects due to high estimates and shortages of funding.
However, Schlieve’s primary recommendation to the Committee was to increase taxes to the maximum levy limit. Schlieve stressed the importance of having “policy-level conversations” to discuss the matters in depth, such as what the City can do once the levy limit is reached.
“We can focus aggressively on cost containment and continuous improvement projects,” Schlieve said, listing options. “[We can] prioritize spending and targeted service reduction. ‘What is an acceptable level of service?’ is something that this body is going to have to be thinking about.”
Schlieve stressed the importance of having a balanced budget and staying out of debt.
After the discussion of taxes and revenue, Schlieve briefly discussed potential projects using American Rescue Plan (ARPA) funds. The City of Waupun received $1.17 million dollars in ARPA funding earmarked for “transformational projects” in the community, which the Council had 28 proposals to consider.
Alderman Dan Siebers asked Administrator Schlieve about the prioritization of the projects and project deadlines, to which Schlieve replied, “Even if we’re forced into those deadlines, now is the appropriate time to be thinking about this.”
Once discussion concluded, Mayor Bishop brought up the potential community response over fundraising concerns. “I just hope that it doesn’t have the same effect that it had on the school district, where our budget is going to be tight and the general public just sees us getting all this free money and they don’t understand that we can’t use it,” Mayor Bishop said. “A lot of people in the community say ‘they have more money than ever before, why do they need a referendum?’”
“It’s confusing to the average person, it’s confusing to us and we’re sitting here,” he noted, explaining that members of the community will have questions about how the City is struggling despite the grant money.
The City Council will review the options for municipal funding and ARPA priorities for when the Committee of the Whole reconvenes.
