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Finance committee reviews 2025 operating budget; council to consider Nov. 7 after further committee meetings
Summary
City leaders presented the executive 2025 budget and financial management plan that reduces a forecast shortfall by about $2.5 million through expenditure cuts and revenue increases; the operating tax rate would rise roughly one cent, equal to about $2.17 annually on a $300,000 home. Departments summarized priorities including cemetery columbarium delivery, library endowment work and a zoning code rewrite.
The Waukesha City Finance Committee spent the bulk of its Oct. 8 meeting reviewing the executive 2025 operating budget and the city's Financial Management Plan (FMP), which management said reduced forecast shortfalls by roughly $2.5 million through a mix of expenditure reductions (about 55%) and revenue increases (about 45%).
Tony (city administrator) told the committee the operating budget rises about 3% overall and the operating tax rate increases about one cent; he illustrated the homeowner impact by saying that a $300,000 single-family home would see about a $2.17 annual increase. "The total impact, positive impact I would say, is approximately $2,500,000," Tony said, and outlined pressures such as levy limits, state aid formulas and low unemployment affecting recruitment.
Tony and other directors described contingency and transfers: a contingency of about $1.5 million composed of applied surplus and ERP capacity (about $600,000), and a decreased transfer to the capital projects fund to limit levy transfers. The committee reviewed calendar dates for additional budget deliberations (Oct. 22 and Oct. 29) and a council review and adoption scheduled for Nov. 7.
Department highlights presented to the committee included:
- Mayor's office: the mayor (speaker identified in the record as the mayor) credited the FMP and noted employee recognition and state-level advocacy on municipal funding; an administrative assistant position is shared 0.5 between the mayor and the city administrator.
- Cemetery: Prairie Home Cemetery Director Karen Richards said a new columbarium will be delivered Oct. 21 to meet growing cremation demand; the cemetery's executive budget is down about 13% mainly because of reduced capital purchases.
- Library: Director Bruce Gaye said the library completed its strategic plan (required to maintain exemption from the county library tax), programming has rebounded and the materials line will increase to about $470,000 in 2025.
- Clerk's office: Interim Clerk Linda Gordo described rollout of Modus software for poll-worker tracking, a goal to implement Badger Books for post-election processing, and plans to fill clerk-office vacancies.
- Community development: Jennifer Andrews said the city completed a comprehensive plan and is undertaking a full zoning code rewrite to be finished in 2025 and will implement new permitting software under the CIP.
- Human Resources and Assessor: HR reported policy moves to Municode and phase 1 of a compensation study; the assessor described a reorganization and contracting of commercial appraisal work with Accurate Assessor and a plan for citywide revaluation in odd-numbered years.
- Public safety and special-event costs: Police and fire leaders warned of persistent overtime pressures driven by FMLA, special events and staffing turnover; police said about 110% of the overtime budget had been spent year-to-date and cited costs associated with large events and trunk radio fees from the county.
Committee members asked about recruitment, overtime mitigation, public-safety dispatch costs and whether venue changes for events shift costs to the city; staff noted event subsidies and said those would be appropriate for future council discussion.
Next steps: the finance committee reconvenes Oct. 22 and Oct. 29 to finish budget deliberations before the council's Nov. 7 review, with staff providing slides and the budget book to members ahead of those sessions.
