City budget is under levy limits

By Adam Tobias of the Daily Times staff
Tuesday, October 21, 2008 12:53 PM CDT

The Watertown Finance Committee was notified Monday that there is still some room under the levy limits for the 2009 budget, but ultimately it decided to keep the tax rate as is.

“We did have some room under the levy limits to move the tax rate, but we decided that we are going to hold with the decision that was made last week,” Watertown Mayor Ron Krueger said.

“I needed to present the finance committee with the information that there was a possibility if they wanted to change their minds and they didn't,” he added.

Last week the finance committee recommended approval for the 2009 city budget that has spending of $15.6 million, which is up about $600,000 from 2008's total of $15.08 million.

The city tax rate would be $7.07 per $1,000 of assessed value, up 4.5 percent from 2008's rate of $6.76. The 2009 debt levy of $3,174,288 is up 10 percent from 2008's total of $2,883,139.

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To help balance the budget, three positions in the city have been eliminated. Those positions are in the park and recreation department, engineering department and recycling department. A position in the city's police department will remain unfilled.

Nearly $600,000 from the reserve fund balance would be used to pay for city operations, but officials will be looking at all aspects of the budget in the near future to see how much of that money they can put back in the reserve fund.

A public hearing on the budget is scheduled to be held during the common council meeting on Nov. 3. Council members would then take the suggestions under consideration and look to adopt the budget on Nov. 18.

In other action Monday, finance committee members reviewed a proposal from EJ Plesko and Associates for tax incremental financing participation from the city for the former Watertown Square complex off of South Church Street.

The finance committee did not take any action on the request because the mayor still needs to provide information on the TIF participation to financial firms that work for the city.

“The finance committee would like some questions answered from our financial people in Milwaukee and from our planners in Madison to help them make a decision,” Krueger said.

The mayor added that he cannot release the amount of TIF funds EJ Plesko and Associates is requesting because the proposal is still under negotiations.

The finance committee also approved some suggestions from a labor attorney in regard to the union contract for the water and wastewater departments

“We just approved some suggestions from our labor attorney to make an offer to try to get it done in mediation rather than have it go to arbitration,” Krueger said.

The mayor said he could not go into further detail on the contract negotiations.

A proposal for $22,000 for the repair of the upper dam off of South Concord Avenue was tabled because Tom Reiss could not attend the meeting. The city owns the dam, but Reiss leases a parcel for generating equipment and maintains the dam.

“When the original repairs on the upper dam were proposed they could not come up with a pinpoint estimate because of the water levels,” Krueger said. “Once they started the repairs and lowered the water, the estimate was about $22,000 too low.

Construction on the upper dam was completed near the end of 2006.

Changes to the health department ordinance dealing with health inspections was approved by the finance committee.

The ordinance approves the state fee structure for health inspections and the job position description for a city environmental health technician.

According to Krueger, the Watertown Health Department performs many inspections for the Wisconsin Department of Health and Department of Agriculture because the state organizations do not have enough inspectors.

The salary for the environmental health technician will be paid for by the funds the city makes by doing the inspections for the state agencies.