2017 Adopted Budget Book Now Available

The 2017 Budget was presented at the committee of the whole meeting on November 9th and was adopted at the Common Council Meeting November 15th. We have finished compiling the final material for the budget books. This year we have created a digital book for your viewing online.  This digital book as well as previous year budgets can be viewed at the following link.  2017 Adopted Budget.

Some have commented that the 2017 Adopted Budget appears to be “vanilla” in nature when comparing to changes over last year.  This may be true in some regards.  The 2017 Budget has no new personnel additions.  The overall levy amount went up by $37,055, while the city portion of the tax rate decreased by 1.07%.  Spending by department for the most part remains consistent with the previous budget.

There are a few unknowns in this budget. This includes the operating cost for the new Municipal Service Building (MSB) and the Old Carnegie Library building.  Without any history to base future estimates on, Staff used best estimates to get to a number in the budget regarding these two buildings.   The MSB is a new efficient building, while the Carnegie building is not being used as a library anymore, rather currently being used to house the Kaukauna Recreation Department Dance class while the community rooms are being renovated.  Once staff has a year worth of expenses, these budget lines will be trued-up in the 2018 and future budgets.

Overall, staff feels this budget is as efficient as possible to continue providing the same services to the city residents as it has in years past.  Staff is continuously looking to incorporate initiatives to improve processes and create efficiency that will ultimately save tax payer dollars.