$15.6 million budget adopted

Wednesday, November 19, 2008 12:14 PM CST

The Watertown Common Council Tuesday adopted the 2009 city budget that calls for spending of $15.6 million.

The 2009 city budget is up about $600,000 from 2008's total of $15.08 million and next year's debt levy of $3,174,288 is up 10 percent from 2008's total of $2,883,139.

Single-family home owners in the Jefferson County portion of Watertown will have a tax rate of $7 per $1,000 of assessed value and those in the Dodge County section will see a rate of $6.97 per $1,000 of assessed value.

The previous year the tax rate in Jefferson County was $6.80 per $1,000 of assessed value and in Dodge County the rate was $6.69 per $1,000 of assessed value.

To help balance the budget, four positions in the city have been either eliminated or will remain unfilled. Those positions are in the park and recreation department, engineering department, recycling department and police department.

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Nearly 73 percent of the 2009 budget will go toward city employee salaries and benefits, and by eliminating the three positions and leaving the other one unfilled, the city will save about $240,000.

Approximately $7.5 million of the 2009 budget will be used to pay city employee salaries and health insurance will make up about $1.43 million. Dental insurance will cost about $130,000.

Nearly $600,000 from the reserve fund balance has been 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.

Some of the larger capital purchases for next year include $435,000 for equipment for the street department and storm water utility and $112,000 for a new 911 system for the dispatch center.

The capital budget also includes $1.5 million for the annual reconstruction of streets, $95,000 for the seal coating of streets and $88,000 for sidewalks. Nearly $100,000 has been earmarked for the repair of the Second Street bridge and another $100,000 will be used for the reconstruction of city parking lots and bridge improvements.