Shorewood 2012 Budget - No Tax Increase?

8/15/11

At the 8/8 Shorewood council work session, the discussion resulted in direction to staff to balance the budget for 2012 with no increase in the tax levy. If this sticks to the wall, it'll be the fourth year in a row the City has been able to maintain or enhance service levels while not taking more property tax money from residents.

See: http://windowsmedia.alphameetings.com/LMCCShorewood/080811shorewood.wmv starting at about the 55 minute point for the beginning of the budget work session.

Balancing the budget will be done by taking $21,000 from the $1.8 million infrastructure fund to use in the long-term road plan implementation; moving about $30,000 of cell antenna revenues from the Water Fund to the General Fund (the water fund has more than $3 million of reserves!); and using part of the more than $400,000 in excess General Fund reserves the City has on hand (note that this will still leave the City's reserves above the City's own policy level, above what the City's auditors recommend and above the recommendation of the State Auditor).

As usual, the Mayor had little useful to add to the discussion. She did express frustration with Council Member Woodruff who seemed determined to get some useful results from the meeting after two previous sessions where the Mayor allowed the discussion to wander around discussing philosophy of budgeting.

The budget must be sent to the County by 9/15. The Insider hopes that it stays as-is and gets Council approval at the 8/22 meeting.

Happy Reading!
The Insider