Marathon County budget adopted without major amendments

By Kevin O’Brien

Marathon County supervisors adopted a 2024 budget last week after narrowly rejecting an amendment that would have cut property taxes by $1.5 million by diverting money from a fund used to pay for Social Services.

The budget approved by the board was mostly unchanged from what was presented by county administrator Lance Leonhard in September, with a nearly $58 million property levy and a mill rate of $3.99 per thousand dollars of property value. Although the mill rate will drop by 20 cents, the county will collect $3.1 million more in property taxes in 2024 – an increase of 5.7 percent over 2023 – due to an 11 percent hike in equalized property values.

Before voting 29-6 to adopt the budget, supervisors spent nearly an hour debating an amendment submitted by supervisor David Baker, which would have reduced the amount of tax dollars going to the Social Improvement Fund (SIF) and redirected it to the Social Services operating budget. At the same time, an equal amount of sales tax revenue would have been taken out of the general fund and used to pay down debt in 2024.

The end result would have been a $1.5 million decrease in the property tax levy next year, leaving that money unavailable for the county’s Capital Improvement Program (CIP). This was a concern for several supervisors who worried about the county not having enough funding for future projects without having to borrow more money.

Supervisor John Robinson said the county board has long followed a policy of rolling over any unspent money into the CIP fund, but Baker’s amendment would have prevented that from happening. The county continues to have “critical” facilities needs, he said, and soon it will no longer be able to rely on money from the American Rescue Plan Act, which will pay for $11.8 million worth of work next year.

“We need to protect that CIP fund balance and make sure that it’s there for ongoing projects,” he said.

Earlier this year, Baker discovered that the SIF’s balance had grown by $9 million over a three-year period, during which time the excess money was not deposited into the CIP fund as normal. The SIF is a mix of restricted state and federal funds and county tax dollars, which make up approximately $6 million of the balance.

Baker said his amendment would give future board members the flexibility to use leftover SIF funds for Social Services or debt service instead of automatically designating it for the CIP.

Supervisor Craig McEwen said he would normally never vote against a proposal to lower taxes, but he would like the board to consider using excess SIF money for a new regional morgue or relocating the Highway Department headquarters. The county already has $8 million committed for the morgue project – $7 million from the state and $1 million from the BA Esther Greenheck Foundation – but it’s still about $5 million short of what’s needed to go out to bid by the end of this year, as originally planned, he noted.

“With not being able to use this money, I’m afraid we’re going to lose that $8 million, because the only way we are able to use that is to build the forensic science center,” he said.

In response to McEwen’s comments, Baker argued that his amendment would actually allow the board more easily allocate SIF money for the morgue because the funds would not automatically roll over into the CIP.

Supervisor Michelle Van Krey noted that the Social Services Department is “not just sitting on money for fun,” and the SIF is needed to pay for high-cost, out-of-home placements for at-risk youth. She also said using the $1.5 million to lower the debt levy is a “one-time fix.”

“I think it needs to be very clear to the taxpayer that, if this does pass, we’re right back in the same position next year,” she said. “We would have to figure out another one-time fix plan to reduce that tax levy if we want to continue to keep it low for the taxpayer.”

Supervisor Gayle Marshall, however, said Baker’s amendment is “a reasonable request” to use just a portion of the SIF surplus to pay for tax relief.

“A no vote on this amendment is a vote to tax our citizens more than necessary,” she said.

Several other board members echoed Marshall’s comments, with supervisor Tony Sherfinski calling the proposed $1.5 million tax cut “fiscally responsible” for citizens dealing with inflation.

“We don’t have the right to be sitting on that money,” he said. “We’re not doing the taxpayers a service.”

Ultimately, a motion to approve Baker’s amendment failed to pass on a 16-17 vote.

No amendments related to library funding were taken up by the board, despite concerns about possible cuts expressed by several citizens at a Nov. 2 budget hearing.

The board did adopt five other amendments, including one from Marshall that will require the county to sell several properties in Wausau that are being vacated by county departments and use the proceeds for both debt service and capital improvements. Her resolution noted that the county is spending $4.3 million to consolidate several departments into a single location on Lake View Drive, and selling the vacated properties would help offset that cost.

Another amendment added a $435,400 bridge replacement project, over Scotch Creek on CTH N, to next year’s capital improvement plan. The project, which is being paid for with Highway Department reserve funds, was fast-tracked due to the quickly deteriorating concrete on the high-traffic bridge.

Three other amendments were all CIP-related: a $168,287 cost increase for renovations at the sheriff’s department’s public safety training and response center; $36,549 for a dump station to be added to the campground at the Dells of Eau Claire Park, and a $259,791 cost increase for renovations to East Gate Hall at Marathon Park. All three projects are being paid for with federal ARPA money.