GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – The 2020 Brown County budget proposal decreases debt and taxes.
Brown County Executive Troy Streckenbach introduced his 2020 budget proposal Monday and said those two things were promised at the time that a new half-percent sales tax was passed three years ago.
With Streckenbach’s proposal, the mill rate is dropping 27 cents from last year and that means county taxes will be down about $40 dollars on a $150,000 dollar home. Those taxes are estimated at $627 dollars.
Read Brown County’s 2020 budget proposal.
“I am pleased to announce that my 2020 budget proposal is filled with historic achievements,” says Streckenbach. “It contains the largest community investment ever made in a single year, and slashes debt by an unprecedented $11.9 million. In addition, it reduces our tax rate to levels not seen since the 1980s. These historic fiscal performances are due to the Debt Reduction, Infrastructure and Property Tax Relief Plan passed by the Brown County Board in 2017.”
The 2020 mill rate decreases from $4.45 to $4.18, as proposed by the County Executive in the 2020 Brown County Annual Budget. This year alone, Brown County will reduce debt by over $11.9 million, bringing our total outstanding debt down to $81.8 million. In addition, the 2020 levy fell by over $1 million, from $92 million to $91 million, despite Brown County seeing its net new construction grow by 1.7 percent and total value increase to more than $23 billion.
“From our perspective, the plan is playing out exactly the way we presented it,” said Streckenbach.
The plan, according to Streckenbach is to use the sales tax to pay for projects including $60 million in improving roads and up to $20 million in upgrades for the library. He says without the sales tax, those projects would have more than likely raised property taxes.
Some county supervisors still aren’t sold on the whole plan, including whether a jail addition is necessary.
“We’ve seen serious crime rates lower and we’re still expanding onto the jail,” said Tom Sieber, a county supervisor. “We need to dig into that, find out why our prison population is increasing and see what we can do to change that trend.”
A new medical examiner building is coming in over budget, at $12.3 million. In 2017, it was pitched as costing $10 million, paired with public safety improvements.
“Ultimately, today’s costs are that much higher,” said Streckenbach, who says the extra cost is manageable considering other projects came under budget.
Under Streckenbach’s plan, construction of both the jail expansion and the medical examiner building would start next year.
The talk of the sales tax is still in the courts. The Brown County Taxpayers Association has said the sales tax is illegal but a judge has not ruled on that yet.
The budget still needs to be addressed by the County Board. They will meet and vote on November 6th.
