[0:00] good morning and uh it's a little after
[0:03] 8 30. and we're going to call the
[0:05] meeting of the operations committee
[0:08] and the annual budget hearing to order
[0:11] the first order of this business is to
[0:13] open the public hearing we are opening
[0:15] the public hearing now and the process
[0:17] we will use on that
[0:19] of course is we will give the overview
[0:21] of the budget
[0:22] and then we will ask for public uh where
[0:25] we ask for comments from the public
[0:27] and after that we'll
[0:28] basically close the public hearing and
[0:30] consider the two resolutions
[0:33] and i think trump's uh trent is going to
[0:35] read those
[0:37] jesus
[0:38] i'm sorry
[0:41] but anyway
[0:43] the uh
[0:45] point is that uh
[0:47] we'll
[0:49] advise the uh
[0:51] the two resolutions to the county board
[0:53] for passage
[0:54] [Applause]
[0:55] okay so the public hearing is open and
[0:57] the first thing we're going to do is go
[0:58] over the selling the summary of the
[1:01] budget
[1:03] the wood county tax levy for 2022
[1:06] is 30 million 721 658
[1:10] that's compared to twenty eight million
[1:12] one hundred and sixty four thousand and
[1:14] sixty four in 2021
[1:17] it's an increase of two million five
[1:19] hundred and fifty six
[1:21] thousand five hundred and ninety four
[1:22] dollars or eight point oh four
[1:25] the county tax rate levy increased
[1:27] mainly due to the increase in debt
[1:29] service living
[1:31] the estimated average equalized value
[1:33] for a home in the county is 132 000
[1:36] compared to 130
[1:38] 300 a year ago
[1:41] that's up that means that a
[1:43] the county property tax on the average
[1:45] home
[1:46] is approximately 730
[1:48] or up from 699 last year about 31
[1:53] difference
[1:54] the total equal by equalized value of
[1:56] all the properties in wood county
[1:58] is 6 million 55 382 that's an increase
[2:02] of 332 million it's going to be at 6
[2:05] billion sorry
[2:07] um 332 million 145 500 or 5.8 percent
[2:13] and that that
[2:14] kept the
[2:16] rate down a little bit and we had more
[2:18] value of property
[2:21] uh so
[2:22] anyway
[2:23] that's pretty much where we're at the um
[2:26] the largest expenditures were as we said
[2:29] the capital improvements project and a
[2:30] lot of that is due to the jails matter of fact
[2:34] of the uh
[2:36] 63 million up in in total uh
[2:39] expenditures
[2:40] that accounted for 90.1
[2:43] of it so that that did
[2:45] the rest of it was
[2:47] in uh mostly in salaries and
[2:51] benefits for the employees
[2:53] that was
[2:54] health and human services was the second
[2:56] highest increase
[2:58] at 2 million
[2:59] 980 000
[3:02] of public safety i think it was uh
[3:05] let's say 8 55 855 000
[3:10] and conservation and recreation 482
[3:12] those are the top increases in the
[3:15] budget
[3:16] basically i'm going to yield the
[3:18] microphone to
[3:20] uh panea tanaya yang and she is going to
[3:22] give part of it and then
[3:24] we will have another summary
[3:33] good morning everyone hopefully you guys
[3:34] can hear me okay
[3:36] my name is pania ying and i'm the deputy
[3:38] finance director
[3:40] um i will before i jump into the budget
[3:42] summary i just wanted to thank all the
[3:44] wood county board supervisors
[3:46] the department heads and their stuff for
[3:48] all their hard work on the budget this
[3:49] year
[3:50] we started working on the budget at the
[3:52] end of july and now it's november so
[3:54] it's quite the process
[3:56] we felt it went very very well and on
[3:59] top of that it was a pleasant working
[4:00] with everyone that is involved
[4:03] in this process and so i just want to
[4:05] thank you all again for making it go
[4:06] smooth this year
[4:08] so we're going to jump right into our
[4:10] budget summary for 2022
[4:13] our budget revenues are estimated to be
[4:15] about
[4:16] 177.7 million while expenditures are
[4:19] estimated to be about 180.5
[4:22] and um if you look at that bottom line
[4:24] in the table there that puts us at a
[4:26] deficit of 2.8 million
[4:29] um that is actually an improvement of
[4:30] about 1.7 million from 2021's deficit of
[4:34] 4.5 million
[4:36] and we want to iterate that the county
[4:37] does have sufficient reserves to do so
[4:41] it was mentioned last year probably and
[4:43] we'll want to mention again this year
[4:44] that the county overall is in a sound
[4:46] financial position but we must remain
[4:49] diligent in our future just trying to
[4:51] improve our budget process overall
[4:54] and i feel that for this year on this
[4:57] year's budget we did do that seeing that
[4:59] our deficit was 2.8 million compared to
[5:01] what we normally see um you know what we
[5:05] have seen in the past from anywhere from
[5:06] four to six million and so um i just
[5:10] want to thank again all the committees
[5:12] and departments where we're working
[5:14] really hard on that and hopefully we
[5:15] continue going towards that direction
[5:17] okay
[5:18] and that's just a very short summary of
[5:21] our 2022 budget and i will give it back
[5:23] to ed wagner to go over our expenditures
[5:25] section okay thanks
[5:31] as i alluded to first in the initial
[5:33] presentation
[5:35] there were some major increases but
[5:37] there were some decreases in
[5:38] expenditures also that went into the
[5:40] budget
[5:41] uh as i said the budgeted expenditures are 185 180.5
[5:47] million
[5:48] or approximately 63.8 million above the
[5:50] 2022.
[5:52] we mentioned that human health and human
[5:54] services increase was approximately 2.98
[5:58] million
[5:59] uh that the public health department
[6:01] increased by 715 000 due almost solely
[6:05] to wage a benefit
[6:06] in the in the pace
[6:08] uh edgewater in norwood and human
[6:10] services community increase is
[6:11] approximately 1.5 million and the bulk
[6:14] of that increase is attributable to the
[6:16] wage and benefit increase and the other
[6:18] increase increases result of a higher
[6:20] contract services rate of about 727 000
[6:24] public safety increased by approximately
[6:26] 855 000 and that was uh in dispatch and
[6:30] corrections
[6:31] and the coal accounted for 603 000 of
[6:33] that
[6:34] and the cost of communication and jail
[6:37] contract services increased by around
[6:39] fifty thousand dollars basically on the
[6:41] rising cost of the contracts
[6:46] public works actually decreased by 941
[6:48] thousand dollars and that was attributed
[6:50] to the cost allocations for highway
[6:52] machinery equipment
[6:54] including a reduction in capital outlet
[6:56] so there was there was something coming
[6:58] down there
[6:59] general government um that had an
[7:02] increase a very small increase of only
[7:04] forty one thousand dollars
[7:07] uh out for that and and that was mostly
[7:09] due these were smaller departments and
[7:11] basically the only thing they had going
[7:13] for that is salaries and benefits so
[7:16] that they that increased by
[7:18] about
[7:19] 295
[7:21] a thousand the input the increase was
[7:24] offset by lower cost of employees
[7:26] self-insured health benefits of
[7:28] approximately 259 000. so there was an
[7:31] offset there it worked out really well
[7:34] and there was also a reduction in
[7:35] capital projects of about seventy four
[7:37] thousand dollars
[7:38] um
[7:39] but that was all said also a lot of cost
[7:41] is an increase in supplies for about
[7:42] eighty 81 000.
[7:44] uh conservation and recreation um
[7:48] that's
[7:49] it shows an increase of 482 000 but
[7:52] that's deceptive
[7:53] because
[7:55] there's a there is going to be state
[7:56] grant funding from parks and forestry
[7:58] shelter construction up for 473 000 so
[8:02] that basically will offset that but we
[8:04] have to report it as an expenditure
[8:06] first before we before the grants are
[8:09] applied to it
[8:10] um capital projects expenditure
[8:13] increased by approximately 57.5 million
[8:15] as we stated
[8:17] and that is mainly because of the jail
[8:20] that's primarily that
[8:22] but there was some other financing for
[8:23] highway and there was also some
[8:25] financing for other capital improvement
[8:27] projects
[8:29] and that included more extensive
[8:32] renovation needs
[8:34] at the aging healthcare facilities and
[8:36] the courthouse
[8:37] and also adding a fourth courtroom which
[8:40] we know we're going to come up to here
[8:42] very shortly i think probably by
[8:44] mid-year next year we'll be responsible
[8:46] for doing that
[8:47] and then there will be more extensive
[8:49] heart facilities
[8:51] in 2022
[9:05] section
[9:06] for 2022 um our budget revenues are
[9:09] approximately again
[9:11] 177.7 million and that is an increase of
[9:15] 65.5 million from 2021's budget
[9:19] with the next talking points i will
[9:20] quickly highlight where these increases
[9:22] are seen for revenue source
[9:25] property taxes that is our second
[9:27] largest revenue source
[9:29] it is up approximately 2.6 million
[9:33] and that's mainly due to an increase
[9:35] under our debt service levy
[9:37] for covering the principal and interest
[9:38] payments of the new jail project
[9:42] next intergovernmental revenues that
[9:44] increased approximately 2.52 million
[9:47] with the largest increase under human
[9:49] services for state and federal aids
[9:54] public charges for services that
[9:55] increased approximately 1.34 million and
[9:58] that is again due to an increase in
[10:00] human services public charges for mental
[10:02] health and edgewater private pay
[10:05] intergovernmental charges for services
[10:08] they actually show a decrease of about
[10:10] 118 000
[10:12] while workers have
[10:13] rates and liability liability insurance
[10:16] increased there was a decrease
[10:18] for health insurance enrollment in a
[10:20] decrease in rewards over at edgewater
[10:22] for private pay or i'm sorry over agile
[10:24] due to reduction in current leader
[10:26] census
[10:28] sales tax for
[10:30] 2022 and we budgeted that for 6.9
[10:33] million and that is up 900 000 from
[10:36] 2021's budget
[10:38] we did take a look at 2021 collections
[10:41] so far to date and uh what this date was
[10:43] projecting for determining that 6.9
[10:46] million figure
[10:49] proceeds from long-term borrowing that
[10:51] is our largest revenue source for 2022
[10:54] that increased about 57.5 million due to
[10:58] the funding that is needed for our new
[10:59] jail
[11:01] our hiring projects and our cip projects
[11:05] and then last but not least other
[11:06] revenues that increased about 815 000
[11:09] primarily due to higher proceeds for
[11:11] long-term borrowing
[11:13] and
[11:14] next i will give it to ed newton just
[11:17] for the quilting prints of our budget
[11:18] here
[11:31] good morning
[11:32] first of all i'd like to thank again all
[11:34] the supervisors department head managers
[11:36] operations committee and preparing the
[11:38] 2022 budget i'd also like to thank pania
[11:41] for all her hard work this is her as
[11:43] everybody knows this is her first budget
[11:45] and she did an excellent job not only
[11:48] on the budget but working with other
[11:50] various departments so i just want to
[11:52] say thank you to her too as well
[11:54] so now i'm just going to we're going to
[11:55] look at
[11:56] what our challenges were the
[11:58] considerations
[11:59] most of you know that our operations
[12:02] levy is capped and it's based upon the
[12:04] economic growth of wood county
[12:06] we had a slightly over 2
[12:09] growth on it on our
[12:13] on economic growth
[12:15] and we know that's not enough to keep
[12:16] pace with uh inflation
[12:19] so we have to
[12:21] you know keep our services to the
[12:23] community and to all our citizens but we
[12:26] still need
[12:27] to be fiscal responsible about it so how
[12:30] do we do this we always have to look for
[12:32] additional funding sources such as
[12:34] grants or other monies that out there
[12:37] and we must maintain a strong fiscal
[12:39] discipline
[12:40] and this is where we rely on our
[12:42] supervisors as well as our department
[12:44] head and managers and i believe they do
[12:46] a good job
[12:47] again we have to look out for our head
[12:49] count because as noted earlier that is
[12:52] one of our largest expenses so i think
[12:54] we've done a good job this year really
[12:56] watching our head count being very
[12:59] diligent of replacing and keeping
[13:03] being able to keep the services that
[13:05] everybody expects from the county and
[13:07] the community
[13:09] and also
[13:10] we know that the supervisors and
[13:11] apartment heads has always strived for
[13:14] greater operational efficiency so even
[13:16] though you know we have to keep things
[13:19] at a minimum we still have to look and
[13:21] make sure that we're we have the
[13:23] efficiency there
[13:24] so then we started preparing our budget
[13:27] what are some of the considerations that
[13:29] we did
[13:30] as talked about earlier we increased our
[13:32] sales tax from 6.0
[13:34] to 6.9
[13:36] where did we come up for this number
[13:38] well ford analytics sends out a report
[13:40] and they were showing closer to seven
[13:42] just over seven million dollars but
[13:44] after discussion we felt to be a little
[13:47] conservative that we would do the 6.9
[13:49] million
[13:50] we felt that was a conservative approach
[13:53] even though right now for 2021 we are on
[13:56] pace probably to reach the 7 million
[13:58] mark on sales tax so we will be over
[14:02] that which is a good thing
[14:05] as part of a lot of this was discussed
[14:08] already earlier is our personnel cost
[14:11] we reflected a 2.5
[14:13] cola increase plus we had our annual
[14:15] step increase
[14:17] and part of that annual step increase is
[14:19] based upon the new structure when we did
[14:22] the salary that went into effect january
[14:24] 2021. why do we do this
[14:26] we have to be competitive with all the
[14:28] other industry that's out there to make
[14:30] sure that we keep
[14:32] you know quality individuals you know
[14:34] quality help here so we want to be
[14:37] competitive but we also have to remember
[14:40] that we got to keep our wages
[14:42] under control and it's a tough task
[14:44] because
[14:45] we need people there's competition
[14:48] our limited budget on where we can get
[14:50] our money so
[14:52] again it's a difficult task but i think
[14:54] we're doing a pretty darn good job
[14:58] um
[14:59] continuing with wages the departments
[15:01] did a great job
[15:04] budgeting for their personnel as far as
[15:06] wages as hell as far as other
[15:09] contract labor costs that they'll need
[15:11] when we're unable to fill some positions
[15:14] and i think helping us out on the budget
[15:16] was our new software because we're able
[15:18] to
[15:19] utilize better information on the wages
[15:22] we're able to
[15:23] put different start date for individuals
[15:26] instead of having everybody which we
[15:28] used to start january 1. we knew you
[15:30] know not everybody hire is going to
[15:32] start january 1 and there's going to be
[15:34] some attrition back and forth so i think
[15:37] that helps us get more of an accurate
[15:39] budget
[15:42] so again that was a great shout out to the department heads
[15:46] managers for their hard work on that i
[15:48] know that's that's a tough task
[15:50] especially for the larger departments
[15:52] that have a lot of moving parts going on
[15:53] so thank you very much
[15:55] we also increased our health care costs
[15:57] by one percent which is a
[16:00] small increase considering all the
[16:02] everything else you hear about health
[16:03] care costs
[16:04] mainly this is due to favorable claims experience in the past
[16:09] years and a strong fund balance
[16:12] workers comp increase for 2022
[16:15] had an increase because we did a big
[16:17] significant decrease in 2021 after
[16:20] discussion with um risk management
[16:23] we felt that this increase was necessary
[16:26] to maintain a sufficient fund balance uh
[16:28] so hopefully next year 2023
[16:31] you know i don't think we'll see much of
[16:33] an increase at all i think we're at that
[16:35] level now where we can maintain and keep
[16:37] a healthy fund balance like you know
[16:38] having serious claims
[16:40] so then we've got to look at the
[16:42] uncertainties that is out there what are
[16:44] some of the uncertainties
[16:46] currently we have a new president
[16:48] uh there's been lots of interesting
[16:50] things going on in washington as far as
[16:53] a lot of money coming our way
[16:55] how to spend it's another uncertainty
[16:58] uh again
[17:00] you know we'll see what happens through
[17:02] the next years
[17:03] copen19 that's still around all the
[17:05] variants um how's that gonna affect us
[17:08] on personnel how does that affect us on
[17:11] medicaid with all the vaccine mandates
[17:13] time will tell so
[17:16] you know we've got to be wary of that 12
[17:18] and 19 also the other mandates is that
[17:20] going to increase some of our costs
[17:22] most likely uh but hopefully there's
[17:24] money out there to offset that
[17:27] we know now we know that we've had this
[17:29] labor shortage for cnas it's been there
[17:32] for a while
[17:33] we're also seeing
[17:35] various other labor shortages throughout
[17:38] the country throughout wisconsin rapids
[17:40] throughout wood county
[17:41] people are you know
[17:43] looking for the next higher paying jobs
[17:45] again that's where we have to keep our
[17:47] wages competitive make sure we have the
[17:49] proper benefits
[17:51] um vaccine mandate again falls into this
[17:54] picture if that comes in how will that
[17:56] affect our labor market so things that could affect
[18:01] the budget going forward that we still
[18:03] don't know
[18:04] supply chain issues we know there's uh
[18:07] that
[18:08] having the availability of products not
[18:11] isn't always there
[18:13] we have the rising cost of products
[18:16] that's good news because as products
[18:18] thrive that increases our sales tax base
[18:21] but on the bad side of course that
[18:23] affects us because we have to pay the
[18:25] higher cost
[18:26] so it's catch-22 but luckily we don't
[18:29] pay the sales tax
[18:32] uh we still have the closure of the
[18:33] wisconsin rapids mill
[18:36] i haven't heard much detail on it that's
[18:38] been pretty quiet last i heard was
[18:40] probably about three months ago that
[18:41] they're still in negotiations
[18:44] again i
[18:45] it would be great to hear more
[18:46] information on that but uh i haven't
[18:49] heard anything
[18:50] uh arpa we do have a lot of money
[18:53] sitting out there but
[18:54] we did not include any of that money in
[18:57] our budget reason is we're not sure how
[19:00] we can
[19:00] spend it properly
[19:02] a lot of
[19:04] webinars that i've attended says be
[19:06] patient
[19:07] so once we're able to figure out how to
[19:09] best spend it then
[19:11] we'll work that into as a budget
[19:12] resolution or however we feel necessary
[19:18] so thank you um do you have any
[19:20] questions for any of our team here
[19:36] thank you well asking again does anybody
[19:37] else have any questions concerning the
[19:40] budget
[19:43] no questions
[19:45] that uh being the case i will declare
[19:47] the public hearing portion close
[19:50] and
[19:51] before we consider the two resolutions
[19:52] we want to add something that that ed
[19:55] mentioned
[19:56] um
[19:57] yeah we
[19:59] i want to thank the staff and the other
[20:01] super supervisors and the other
[20:03] uh committee chairs for their help and
[20:06] cooperation in preparing this budget it
[20:08] went much smoother this year than it did
[20:10] in the years past and i'm very pleased
[20:13] with it and i want to thank you all from
[20:15] the bottom of my heart for your your
[20:16] cooperation
[20:18] and with that we'll go on to the
[20:21] consideration
[20:23] of the two resolutions the first one one one dash one
[20:29] is uh intent and synopsis to establish
[20:32] wood county's tax levy for 2021
[20:35] collectible in 2022 and i have a mobile
[20:37] motion by rosar second by fischer
[20:41] discussion
[20:44] they're being done all those in favor
[20:46] please say aye opposed
[20:49] motion carries
[20:50] the next item that is uh item 1-2
[20:55] intended synopsis adoption of the 2022
[20:57] wood county budget
[21:00] no mission is in order mr fire mr fisher
[21:04] all those in favor please say aye
[21:08] opposed so carried
[21:10] and with that ladies and gentlemen
[21:13] we are done with our presentation and we
[21:15] thank you for your cooperation and we
[21:17] stand to turn