$26 million budget approved, but final tax number is pending
By Jason Arndt
Staff Writer
The City of Burlington adopted its 2021 operating and capital budget of a little more than $26 million at a Nov. 17 Common Council meeting.
The combined city budget, according to Finance Director Steve DeQuaker, includes utilities and Tax Incremental Finance District to bring the total $26,200,639.
“This is an overall increase of $286,393 over the total budget for 2020, or a 1.11% increase,” DeQuaker wrote in a Common Council memo.
Most of the increase, he said, is attributed to a buyout of a Community Development Block Grant from the state as Wisconsin closes out the program.
The total levy to support the budget is $8,196,837, including $1,369.591 from the general fund debt levy, which includes all general fund debt, with exception to leases and maximum amount allowable under state statute.
General operations, part of the total levy, is $6,827,246 for an increase of 1.22%.
While the total levy increased by 3.88%, city officials project a drop in the city portion of the mil rate to about $8 per $1,000 of assessed property value, according to DeQuaker.
DeQuaker told the Common Council he does not have a precise account for the mil rate, at least as of Nov. 17, because some figures from other sources have not trickled in.
“Our issue right now is I can’t really calculate mil rates because our Board of Review hasn’t fully adjourned,” he said. “That won’t be until the end of November.”
The projection, meanwhile, falls below last year’s rate of $8.33.
District 3 Alderman Jon Schultz II, who noted the downward trend, lauded the projection.
“If we end up at an $8 dollar mil rate, that is the fourth year in a row (of decrease),” he said.
In 2018, the mil rate was set at $8.56.
“This does not necessarily mean lower taxes due to property value increases in various assessment categories and is only representative of the city mil rate, not the combined mil rate of all the taxing jurisdictions.”
To read the full version of this story see the Nov. 26 edition of the Burlington Standard Press.
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