Village budget no reason for a heart attack, official says

The Village of Grafton’s preliminary 2027 budget predicts a tax rate decrease despite a startling 30% increase in the general fund budget and a 54% increase in the levy needed to support that.

But taxpayers need not have a heart attack, Director of Administration Paul Styduhar said. The general fund is only a portion of the overall budget, and those increases will be offset by decreases elsewhere.

Styduhar told the Village Board during a committee of the whole meeting last week that those increases are due primarily to a bookkeeping change in the way the village pays for its share of the Ozaukee Central Fire Department.

In the past, that money was allocated to the special revenue fund, not the general fund, he said. The special revenue fund will decrease as the money is now placed in the operating fund. 

Of the $3.3 million increase in the operating budget, he said, $2.6 million can be attributed to the department.

The proposed operating budget of $15.1 million is expected to be supported by a $9.5 million tax levy.

It also uses $914,000 from fund balance  to balance the budget, Styduhar said.

Of that amount, $169,000 will finance one-time projects that include a facilities condition assessment, pavement management plan, repairs to the Timothy Wooden building and the police station drainage system and the rebidding of bridge projects.

The proposed operating budget includes a 3% salary increase for village employees, and it does not increase staffing, Styduhar said.

It does, however, replace the assistant police chief and a police officer’s positions with two police captains and makes a part-time building inspector full time, which will decrease the village’s reliance on part-time inspectors.

Styduhar noted that room tax revenues increased $263,000. The village’s hotel rooms have been booked solid, he said, attributing much of that occupancy to workers from the Vantage Data Centers project in the City of Port Washington.

Of that, he noted, the Chamber of Commerce will receive $184,000.

The tax rate needed to support the overall budget — which includes not just the general fund but other funds, such as debt service — is expected to be $4.75 per $1,000 of assessed valuation, a decrease of 3.8%, he said. Under this plan, the owner of a house assessed at $419,000 would pay $1,990 in village taxes.

“This is a draft. There will be changes,” Styduhar warned the board.

The village’s budget hearing will be held during the 6 p.m. Monday, Nov. 16, Village Board meeting and the board is expected to adopt the spending plan that night.