City reviews capital projects for next year’s budget

SHAWANO — City officials Wednesday had their first glimpse at a preliminary capital improvement budget for 2020, with an eye on deciding which proposed projects would make it to the final draft or be put off for another year.

It was the first of a series of joint-Common Council/finance committee budget discussions expected to continue into October.

Officials haven’t yet begun looking at the operational budget for next year. At this point there is no proposed levy or tax rate projection.

“We still don’t have our assessed value numbers or any numbers from the state that are not just preliminary,” City Administrator Eddie Sheppard said. “We’re still waiting for the (property) revaluation numbers to come in and that will really drive the direction and set things up for us.”

Sheppard said he hopes to have the revalutation figures within a couple of weeks.

Overall, the city is in good shape financially, according to Sheppard, particularly with the retirement of two Tax Incremental Finance districts that will go entirely back onto the tax rolls.

TIF districts are areas where municipalities invest in infrastructure, such as sewer and water, to attract development where it might not otherwise occur, or to make improvements, such as eliminating blight.

Whatever increase in tax revenue that results from development in those districts goes to paying back the debt the municipality incurred from making improvements to the district.

The retired districts include TIF District 2, created for the Raasch Industrial Park, and TIF district 3, created for water, sewer and street improvements to the Ziegler Avenue residential area after being annexed from Belle Plaine.

According to previous city estimates, those closures would add roughly $160,000 to the tax base, $80,000 of which would go into the general fund. The other $80,000 would go toward debt service.

The city doesn’t yet know what its health insurance costs will be for next year, but there are no major changes planned for next year such as the staff reorganization that was put in place this year.

Barring anything unexpected coming up, Sheppard said, “I’m confident we’ll be able to put something good together.”

In the meantime, the focus is on the capital improvements budget.

The city borrows for capital improvements every two years and 2020 will be the second year of the latest round of borrowing.

The city expects that by the time this year is over, there will be $60,000 left over from this year’s projects that can be added to capital improvement projects and purchases in 2020.

However, a preliminary wish-list from department heads for additional projects and purchases presented at Wednesday’s meeting totals about $230,000.

The list includes some park bathroom upgrades at some of the older park facilities; audio-visual upgrades at City Hall, particularly in terms of the equipment used to broadcast Common Council meetings; improvements to the city’s web site; a conference room for the police department that can also double as a command center; a new cemetery truck for the parks department; and a new garbage truck for the department of public works.

Also on the list is the potential $30,000 the city could contribute to a dog park, provided there are matching donors.

At this point, the proposed capital improvements budget includes only the amount the city has borrowed for, but some tax levy revenue could also be set aside to cover some of those costs.

“We’ll be able to levy some dollars,” Sheppard said. “We typically do.”

City staff will take a second look at the wish-list to prioritize the items on it before bringing it back to city officials for further discussion.