County to borrow $2.2 million for 2025 budget

Shawano County officials were authorized to borrow up to $2.2 million to help the county pay for its 2025 operational budget.

The motion was approved Sept. 18 by the Shawano County Executive Committee and will be forwarded to the County Board for final approval in October.

Supervisors made the decision after all departments were forced to trim 3% from their original levy requests to reduce the amount of borrowing from an original projection of $2.975 million.

“Quite frankly, what we found was that (3% reduction) decimated our smaller departments,” said Jim Davel, county administrative coordinator. “It was really going to come down to salaries and benefits.”

The borrowing for capital projects is a workaround that allows the county to borrow to meet its operational needs. The levy increase is limited by the state.

Davel warned supervisors they will need to devise new ways to collect revenue, because the cuts made this year are not sustainable for future budgets.

“We’ve got to think in the future: ‘How do we generate additional revenue?’” he said. “Our costs have gone up so much across the board. We can’t keep cutting and expect not to increase revenue for our departments. It’s out of balance.”

Carrie Buntjer, finance director, said conversations were conducted with some of the smaller departments to ensure the 3% reduction did not affect their state-mandated obligations.

Davel used the coroner’s budget as an example.

“You talk about taking 3% out of the coroner’s budget,” he said. “It’s completely unrealistic, because he controls none of the autopsies. He doesn’t control any of the numbers that come in for autopsies … the amount of labs that we have to do.”

“We still got to look for more revenue,” Supervisor Kevin Conradt said, referring to the overall budget.

All department heads have the option of going to the County Board in 2025 and asking for additional money from the general fund if they fall short in select areas.

One significant cost savings came from the health insurance premiums.

Julie Hasser, director of human resources, said she expected the 2025 increase to be 10% and possibly even lower at 9%. Officials budgeted for a 10% increase.

“Overall health care costs are increasing because still of COVID. For many, many years, nobody went to the doctor, could go to the doctor and then everybody was afraid to go to the doctor,” she said. “Now everybody is going back to the doctor, and we’re finding all of these situations that may have been missed.”

The county has had a couple of very high cost claims since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The initial projection that we had gotten for an increase in our costs was anywhere from between a 34% increase to a 43% increase,” she said. “That’s very scary.”

She said some plan changes would be made, adding that it would still be positive for employees. It’s expected the coverage plan will drop from its current top tier to the second-highest tier.

The move will also allow the county to keep moving toward its long-term goal of having a self-funded program.

A second cost savings came from the public library. A little more than $12,000 was saved by restructuring its staffing plan.

Library staff will combine the lead jobs for the Wittenberg and Birnamwood branches.

Many library jobs are part time with no benefits. By eliminating some of those jobs, which have a high turnover rate, and adding the hours and duties to the assistant library positions, those new positions are eligible for some benefits.

The new positions moved from 20 hours a week with no benefits to 25 hours a week with benefits that include involvement in a pension plan, paid time off, paid holidays and an option for the county-funded life insurance plan.

“We decreased the budget, and we’re still able to give employees benefits, which is a great win,” Hasser said.

The changes affected nine employee positions.

The county is still struggling finding qualified applicants for several other positions, with three more vacancies just announced.

kpasson@newmedia-wi.com