Swimming upstream in 2017: The 2017 Proposed Budget

Well, it's time. The big reveal, the bottom line, full disclosure. This Tuesday evening, the 2017 Budget for the City of Chetek will be presented at the budget hearing held in council chambers at 6:30 p.m. prior to our regular monthly city council meeting. For the past two months the budget committee comprised of Carmen Newman, City Clerk/Treasurer, Cassandra Larson, Deputy City Clerk/Treasurer, 2^nd Ward Alderman Cliff Bronstad, 4^th Ward Alderman Mark Edwards and myself, the mayor, has met a couple of times, crunched some numbers and had many an informal discussion in search of a budget we can live with. I even presented it to the folks at the Chetek House of Prayer to pray for us during this process (which they did.) As I noted in an earlier post (see The Bottom Line), I was hoping a relatively painless solution would emerge. Unfortunately, it hasn't. Like the old saying goes, “if wishes were fishes we'd all swim in riches” and it looks like in 2017 we'll all be swimming upstream a bit.

The most significant change the general public will experience next year is that beginning January 1, 2017 (assuming the full council will approve the budget this Tuesday night) the City of Chetek will reduce its full-time police force by one full-time officer. That's a big deal. But in stating as such, the commitment remains to offer 24/7 protection. How so? I'm assured it's how we work our schedule as well as offering more regular hours to part-time officers. I'll defer to Chief on that one. Clearly, he and the department would rather stick with the force we currently have but “if wishes were fishes...” er...you get what I mean. Otherwise, city residents will continue to be offered all the regular services they are used to receiving – weekly garbage pick-up, friendly and personable service at City Hall open Monday thru Friday, a small but capable crew of public works' guys who diligently go about repairing and maintaining city property and a dedicated unit of police officers who work hard to keep us all safe.

Rod and Mike - the two guys on either side
of me - have 65 years of service to this city between them!

These same people who answer our questions or plow our streets or pick up our trash or make sure our sewage continues to be treated properly or respond to a 911 call were all informed in October that their health insurance premiums would be going up and they would only be receiving a 1% increase in pay in 2017. It wasn't the result of extended negotiations. It was just the hand they were dealt reluctantly – but dealt all the same. Still, I'd be surprised to learn of a drop-off in the quality of the service they will, no doubt, continue to provide. They are that kind of people.

This picture tells a story of the rising costs of health care

If you subscribe to The Chetek Alert and read the lead story in the October 26, 2016 edition (see Committee votes to reduce police force), I thought Carl did a good job of summing up the issue pretty succinctly. In fact, that little graph they ran pretty much tells it all. The biggest culprit behind our budget woes is the Affordable Care Act. An employer must provide health care to their employees or face stiff penalties. In 2017 alone we will experience an increase of 70% in our health care costs. If you're a fish, that's a big worm to swallow. After only presenting a 1% pay increase as a token gesture to our employees who will be paying higher premiums next year, after cutting back on outlay accounts such as replacement monies for a new squad car for the police department as well as new equipment for the City Shop, that still left us $80,000-some in the hole. Given that we are already working with a skeleton public works' crew we are reluctantly recommending we lay-off one full time officer come December 31.

There are other ways to fix the current budget dilemma but none of them are smart ones. You could use outlay accounts or fund balance or even what monies we hope to realize because of the sale of Knapp Haven. But using those monies is something like paying your water bill with a credit card. Sure you paid this month's bill but by next month you're really two months in arrears – with interest accruing. That is financially dumb. Fund balance is really for emergency needs or one-time purchases not ongoing expenses.

To the person who sent in a letter anonymously begging us to raise their taxes so we would not have to lay off anybody I'm afraid to inform you it doesn't work that way. Since 2006, the State sets the limits on how much a municipality can levy. Even if we wanted to raise your taxes, we couldn't. Well, that's not totally true. The max the State is allowing us to levy for 2017 is $4,200 spread out over the tax rolls. That's it. No foolin'. So if you can't raise taxes and you can't print money then the only thing you can do is pull in your belt another notch and do the best you can with what you have to work with. It's not anything we're doing wrong as far as I can see it. It's what all small towns like ours have to do to continue to provide the quality of life we enjoy here.

The budget hearing is open to the public at which time we will field any questions or clarifications anyone may have about the 2017 Budget. It may not be one that you personally like. It's not necessarily one that we like either but it does balance and it does come with a promise that life as we know it in these here parts will continue to go on pretty much as usual.