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The City of Sheboygan’s planned budget for 2023 was outlined at Monday night’s Common Council Meeting, and it shows that Sheboygan is on track to maintain its best-ranking “Aa2” by Moody’s, which rates risk on municipal bonds with investors. The presentation was made by City Administrator Todd Wolf and Finance Director Kaitlyn Krueger.
The budget includes built-in wage adjustments of 2.5% for Fire Union members, and for Police Officer and Supervisory Unions a 2-stage increase of 1% on January 1, and a 2% increase on June 25th. Negotiations are still underway with the Transit Union, while non-represented employees will be given a 2% cost-of-living increase and potentially a one-step increase as well. Recommendations made from a commissioned study done by Carlson-Dettmann Consulting Firm of Madison were incorporated into the budget-making process.
As far as State of Wisconsin funding, shared revenue increased $97,833, and the Utility Aid Payment reduction was postponed as the planned shutdown of Alliant Energy’s Edgewater Generating Station was delayed until June of 2025, maintaining that source of funding for another three years.
Figures from the State Department of Transportation funds for Connecting Highway and General Transportation Aids, as well as State Department of Revenue Manufacturing Assessed Values were not yet available, and final balancing of the budget will take place after remaining figures are in, which is expected by the end of this month.
City Administrator Todd Wolf emphasized that the City of Sheboygan is statutorily required to run a balanced budget with no fund balance use, meaning that “no matter what, we cannot use fund balance for operations”, even if there’s “money in the piggy bank.” As for money already borrowed, although the Net Debt Outstanding is over $58 million ($58,914,322) which is nearly $1 million more than the previous budget, the ratio of net debt to debt capacity falls by over 3% compared with 2022, with a ratio of 30.05%, something Wolf called “a very good thing.”
At this point the 2023 Preliminary Budget has a deficit of $192,580 in the General Fund, which will eventually be addressed by other fund adjustments yet to be determined. The Property Tax Levy is projected to increase by $42,895.
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