Council approves 2025 budget for Shawano

The Shawano Common Council signed off Nov. 20 on what City Administrator Eddie Sheppard described as a challenging puzzle — the 2025 budget.

The budget includes a 31-cent increase in the tax rate, which means property owners will pay $9.10 per $1,000 of assessed valuation. The owner of a $200,000 piece of property will be paying $1,820 in city taxes for the coming year.

“Some puzzles are more fun than others,” Sheppard said as he began the budget presentation. “The process has been a little bit challenging, but at the same time, some of those are the ones where you’ve really got to think about some of the things you do, seeking out some of efficiencies.”

The city was also able to include a 2% cost-of-living increase to employee pay for the next year, something officials weren’t sure until recently they’d be able to do because of the change in insurance companies and the costs associated with it. Insurance costs have soared for the city in recent years having its own plan, so now Shawano has gone into a state insurance pool so that future increases would be at a minimum.

“Now we’re part of a much larger pool, and so we would expect to see smaller increases, year over year,” Sheppard said. “I think this provides stability that we’re looking for in the years coming forward, which will definitely help with the budget (in future years).”

The city is also eliminating one position and freezing another position mid-year to balance the budget. The court clerk position is going away, with duties going to others in Shawano City Hall. That employee will be going to work for the Shawano Police Department, where two of its office employees are leaving. The second office position is the one that will be frozen during the year.

Sheppard said the city is increasing its debt service payments by $150,000 to $3.34 million, about 20% of the total budget. He said the city hopes to have a leveled debt-service payment by 2027.

There is also a $72,000 increase in expenses for the city for the airport, which had been a joint operation between the city and Shawano County before the county opted out this year.

State-shared revenues are up a little to handle city operations.

“We’re demonstrating that we’re putting a lot of money back into the infrastructure of the community,” Sheppard said, noting that there’s $16 million in revenue coming from property taxes, state aid and other funding sources.

There’s also an additional $400,000 more in non-tax levy funds for 2025. Sheppard noted that over $300,000 is from the city’s new wheel tax, which takes effect Jan. 1.

The city is also getting $700,000 in grant funding to help speed up the repaving of Shawano’s roads, according to Sheppard.

“Not only are we leveraging our money as much as we possibly can, but whenever we bring in outside money, we can do more streets, which means we can get streets done faster,” he said.

One challenge the city has is getting vehicles, especially equipment. It’s not a matter of cost as it is the lead time from when the city requests a vehicle to when it is received. Some of those vehicles requested now are not expected to be received until the end of 2025 because of the backlog companies have to fill.

“Everyone’s facing budgetary challenges, but I think from a levy standpoint, that’s a manageable increase,” Sheppard said.

The city constitutes 45% of the total tax levy in Shawano, with Shawano School District comprising 32% and the county 20%. The technical school system takes up the remaining portion.

lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com