OSHKOSH, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – The city of Oshkosh is moving towards the final adoption of its 2024 budget. This will be the first budget since the state’s shared revenue agreement was passed earlier this year.
“We’re continuing to follow our strategic plan with some of our key goals of healthy neighborhoods, public safety, infrastructure, effective government,” Oshkosh City Manager Mark Rohloff said. “Those are the hallmarks of our budget.”
That process itself isn’t unique, but this year some extra funds became available for the first time in decades.
“Inflation for things like employee wages, fuel, things like that. It really took a bite into our expenditure side of things,” Rohloff said. “So that shared revenue relief came literally in the nick of time.”
As Rohloff explains, a large portion of the nearly $2 million received from that program will go towards public safety.
“The police department protects us,” City Council Member Paul Esslinger said. “I don’t want to sit and pick apart a police and fire budget. I trust these people, I’m sure everyone else does too.”
In fact, public safety accounts for over 60% of the general fund operating budget,
“There are a lot of needs that we identified, but the fact that we have a growth factor with shared revenue, we’re not always going to be reliant on property taxes to fill those voids,” Rohloff said.
And the increase in shared revenue has provided some instant relief in the budget planning process for city officials. Other areas that will receive additional funding next year are public works and parks.
“All told it’s over a quarter of a billion dollars for the city of Oshkosh budget,” Rohloff said. “We’re quite an operation and we’re happy to provide great services and hopefully the 2024 budget will do that.”
The city council previously held two workshop days where they’ve gone through the budget in detail. The adoption of the final budget will be on Nov. 14.
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