Here's Your Caledonia Village Budget, But There Are Some Huge Asterisks

Village residents will pay $5.73 per $1,000 assessed value for the Village portion of their tax bill.

That's an increase of 1 cent over the mil rate from last year. The Village Board voted 6 to 1 to increase the levy to $13.18 million, which is a $92,000 or .69 percent increase. Jerry Griswold voted against several of the budgets, which were segregated by departments.

Tom Lebak, the Village Administrator, told the Village Board at their meeting Tuesday night, that the has yet to get the assessments from the state.

This means a homeowner whose property is valued at $150,000 would pay $859.50 to the Village. If the assessed value is the same from last year to this year, that represents an increase of $1.50 more on a home valued at $150,000. However, they would also pay for schools, and county taxes as well.

The budget also includes almost $1 million of new borrowing which includes everything from tasers to reshingling the salt shed to new police cars.

Also, negotiations with the , which include the police and fire departments, have yet to be completed. The fire and police budgets represent about 2/3 of the Village's budget. The Village is trying to get both unions to agree to pay for 15 percent of the cost of the insurance premiums and pay 5.8 percent of their wages towards their pension.

During the budget hearing, Griswold had a few things to say about the Village budget, which resulted in a screaming match between Ron Coutts and Griswold over a and the development. He also disagreed with the Village's decision to expand the Caledonia Business Park by 390 acres using a tax incremental finance district.