Village Administrator: State Budget Cuts Weren't That Bad

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Now that the state budget is law, the Village staff is sorting through how the state budget cuts will affect the Village's bottomline.

And the general consensus is: it’s not as bad as they thought, but it’s still bad.

Initially Village officials said they would be losing 50 percent of their state shared revenue, 15 percent of their highway money and all recycling dollars.

Tom Lebak, the Village Administrator, said highway aids were originally expected to decrease by $137,406, but they learned the decrease would be $91,604. In 2011, the Village is expected to receive about $1 million in Highway Aid. Shared revenue will decrease by $342,662, a 36 percent decrease. In 2011, the Village is expected to receive $944,115.

“So the decrease really averages out to about a 25 percent decrease in state shared revenue and highway aids,” Lebak said.

In total, the Village lost $500,000 of its $9.3 million operating budget.

The initial state budget proposal also called for cutting recycling payments to local municipalities, but that funding was restored.

Village officials can now look at ways to adjust to the revenue loss, but that represents only half of the budget crunch. If costs increase, the Village might have a bigger hole to fill.

To offset the revenue loss, the state wanted public employees to pay 10 percent of their health insurance premiums and contribute to their pensions. But Village employees already pay 10 percent of their health insurance premium.

While the Village budget usually isn’t approved until fall, Lebak said they are looking at these budget issues now.

Correction: This version corrects the previous version, which should have stated that the Village of Caledonia union employees, except police and fire employees, would pay 5.8 percent of their pension into the Wisconsin Retirement System.