Village reviews conservative long-range financial plan, staff to produce final slide deck

Whitefish Bay officials on Dec. 1 heard a presentation from Kayla Thorp of financial advisor Ellers on a conservative long-range financial management plan (FMP) and asked staff to produce a clearer slide deck before final adoption.

Thorp told the village board the plan models a worst-case scenario in which non-property tax revenues remain flat, saying it “basically gives you a doomsday scenario” that shows what levy would be needed to sustain current services if no additional nonproperty revenues arrive. The presentation used the adopted 2026 budget as a baseline and projected the village’s general fund from $13.2 million in 2026 to about $15.9 million by 2031 under those conservative assumptions.

The plan examines capital-improvement borrowing and debt-service impacts tied to a roughly $75 million CIP through 2030. Thorp said 2026 borrowings included in the model would likely increase debt-service levy needs in 2027 by about $313,000, but noted the village still shows available statutory borrowing capacity. On utilities, she said Ellers will file a 2026 test-year conventional water rate case with the Public Service Commission that could take about a year to complete and that a simplified 3% water increase adopted in 2025 will take effect in 2026.

Why it matters: Thorp recommended the board consider near-term, low-cost options to reduce levy pressure and consider revisions to the village’s fund-balance policy. She recommended identifying embedded, cash-funded capital in operating budgets (estimated by staff at about $570,000–$650,000) that could be financed with debt to preserve levy capacity and suggested raising the undesignated general fund balance target from the current 35% toward 40% to improve reserves and present a stronger position to rating agencies.

Board discussion and next steps Trustees asked clarifying questions about inflation assumptions, the measurement of median household income used for affordability calculations, and timing when levy pressure may become structural. A trustee asked whether 4% service inflation was appropriate; Thorp replied the figure is a compounding assumption chosen to approximate a median across many services. On affordability, Thorp noted the plan’s 10-year estimate of a combined $467 increase across water, sewer and stormwater for an average residential consumer equates to about 1.15% of the village’s cited median household income of $154,000, below the 2% per-utility threshold commonly used in the sector.

The board requested that Thorp provide a final, narrative slide deck that explains methodology, highlights changes since the prior review and clarifies utility-rate timing and tax-impact calculations. Thorp also said an actuarial study on OPEB assumptions will be completed early next year and will inform recommendations about whether to change automatic transfers to the OPEB stabilization fund.

At the close of the discussion, staff said they will return with an updated, visual deck and accompanying narrative for the board to review before decisions about policy changes and any transfers are made.