Village budget OK’d with 1.7% rate hike

The Grafton Village Board on Monday finalized the 2020 budget, which calls for a 12.8-cent increase, or 1.76%, in the tax rate to support municipal spending. 

Village Administrator Jesse Thyes said residents can expect to pay $7.32 per $1,000 of assessed valuation. That means the owner of a house valued at $250,000 will pay $32 more than last year, or $2.67 per month.

The $27.6 million budget is up $462,121, or 1.7%, from 2019. 

Thyes said the budget increase is primarily due to capital improvement projects, including the construction of an $8.1 million headworks building for the utility department.

The department is also planning an $850,000 project to improve its lift stations on 17th Avenue and Green Bay Road and will replace water meters throughout the village for $199,000.

The budget calls for replacing 1.1 miles of roads and improving sidewalks at a total cost of  $1.2 million.

During last month’s public hearing on the budget, Thyes said the village has not received property valuations for manufacturing companies from the Wisconsin Department of Revenue, which he expected to lower the tax rate. 

On Nov. 13, the village received the manufacturing valuations that lowered the tax rate by 0.001 of a cent.

“While we did anticipate it coming back in the village’s favor, we were hoping for a bit more than a 0.001 (cent) impact. That said, the levy and tax rate remain in essence unchanged,” Thyes said.

The board approved the budget and tax rate on a 5-1 vote.

Trustee Sue Meinecke cast the dissenting vote. She said she opposed the spending package because the police and public works departments’ budgets were cut by 6% and 10%, respectively, while the Fire Department’s budget was decreased by 1.5%.

“There is not an equal distribution of the cuts across all the departments,” Meinecke said.