Village reviews 2025 financial management plan and directs staff to pursue single general-obligation note

Ariana Schmidt, a financial advisor with Ehlers, told the Village of Jackson village board that the firm had completed the final Financial Management Plan (FMP) and would present a preliminary 2025 financing plan that the board could act on this year.

Schmidt said the firm’s analysis showed the water utility is “roughly 16% behind the revenue requirement” needed to maintain operations and capital projects and that the village will pursue a conventional Public Service Commission rate case this spring to be implemented in 2026. On sewer rates, Ehlers recommended two increases—one on Jan. 1, 2025 (already implemented, Schmidt said) and a further increase on Jan. 1, 2026—to support a wastewater treatment plant upgrade that will substantially raise system value.

Why it matters: The board’s choices about borrowing and utility rates determine how the village pays for near-term capital projects and the long-term cost to ratepayers and taxpayers. Ehlers laid out options for financing roughly $3.7 million of 2025 projects and described trade-offs between issuing two…