By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
For the first time since 2006, the Town of Burlington is being forced to raise its property tax rate.
Taking the small percentage allowed to them by the state, the Town of Burlington Board voted unanimously Tuesday night to approve a tax levy of $1.67 million – an increase of 2.4 percent.
The increase in the corresponding mill rate is 1.26 percent, going from $2.56 per $1,000 of property value to $2.59 per $1,000.
Town Chairman Ralph Rice said town officials took what they could to help offset costs of, among other things, the reconstruction and renovation of Town Fire Station No. 2 near Bohners Lake.
Rice said the small increase in the levy – less than $40,000 – will help, though certainly won’t cover what is an increasingly tight budget.
“It’s a bare bones budget,” Rice said. “It covers the needs of the town.”
The town is also losing revenue from the City of Burlington as shared revenue payments for the Murphy Farms residential development are phased out. The payment this year is 20 percent less than last year, and the town will lose another 20 percent in 2017, and then the amount from the city will be what Town Administrator Diane Baumeister called “negligible.”
The town did have a bright spot in its budget. Policing costs – which had been steadily rising by about $40,000-$50,000 a year, according to Rice and Baumeister – rose by about $8,400.
The contract with the Racine County Sheriff’s Department for the costs will be $721,549 for the year.
-
-
-
-
-