Wittenberg Village Board OKs $851K budget

Sidewalk repairs are only major project slated for 2023
By: 
Luke Reimer
Reporter

The Wittenberg Village Board unanimously voted in favor of finalizing and approving the 2023 budget during its Nov. 7 meeting.

The village is looking at a balanced budget, with revenues and expense both totalling $851,089 and a tax levy of $1,297,760.38, with the village accounting for $330,992.07 and Shawano County, the Wittenberg-Birnamwood School District and Northcentral Technical College making up the rest. That change is about $10,000 less from last year’s budget, something that Wittenberg Village Clerk Traci Matsche attributed to the village’s American Recovery Plan Act (ARPA) funds, which were given to municipalities during the COVID-19 pandemic, not being available anymore.

Matsche added that the village does not have the mill rate just yet, as it is still waiting for the state school tax credit, which won’t be available until later this month.

When noting changes from last year, Matsche said that the general property taxes are slightly increasing from $258,366 from last year to $258,761 for 2023.

“If we had a lot of construction, you would see it go up a lot more, but in this case it only went up $375,” said Matsche.

Other changes that were included were the intergovernmental revenues decreasing by $57,781, due to the ARPA funds being fully received.

“We got our last ARPA payment in June of this year, so next year there will not be any,” said Matsche.

The last major change on the revenue portion of the budget was an increase of $47,059 in the unrestricted funds, due to budgeting for major sidewalk projects in the summer.

“It is going to be a number of sidewalks around that village that were either never finished, never put in and we need them for the people that walk through the village,” said Matsche. “Unrestricted funds just means money that we set aside for a project, so it is just being budgeted this year to use for that project.”

Matsche also noted that the only major change in regards to expenses was the capital outlay increasing $28,735 from $304,159 last year to $332,894 for 2023.

“There again it is because of the sidewalk project,” said Matsche.

She noted that from year-to-year the village’s budget does not drastically change, unless a major project is projected.

“We do everything that we can to try and not raise raise taxes,” said Matsche.


lreimer@newmedia-wi.com