VIROQUA, Wis. – The Viroqua City Council had a full agenda again on Tuesday, August 8 including a discussion on budget priorities for the city council as the city moves into budget season.
City Administrator Nate Torres said the individual city departments have already started with the preliminary budget process, including department heads meeting with their respective home committees to talk about goals and priorities for each department. From there those goals will go to a budget team (Mayor Justin Running, Finance Chair Kristal Welter, Alderperson Tanja Birke, City Administrator Nate Torres) that will hold public discussions on those proposals on August 22 and 23. Torres said each department will have about and hour to an hour and a half to discuss their plan and get feedback from the public.
Torres asked the council for their budget priorities leading into those budget sessions and laid out some overall guiding principles. Torres said each year the city has moved closer allowable levy limit and the new city hall payments of about $110,00 per year will use up most of remainder of the allowable limit. Torres also pointed out that as the city has identified the need for more specific services in various areas, those costs also add up.
“As we’ve identified need for more services,” Torres said. “We added a new police officer in, I believe it was 2020, in 2023 we added another full-time employee for the fire department, and along the way you’ve seen decisions to fund other, you know, the SMART bus, or provide money to the historical society. That came up tonight, and all that stuff creeps up. Those are small in the grand scheme of things but collectively they’ve meant that our tax levy has gotten closer and closer and closer to the the allowable tax levy each year.”
Torres said another pressure on the budget is wage inflation that everyone is dealing with and the need to retain employees. Torres did have some good news too. The city will also get more shared revenue this year due to a change in the state revenue sharing formula. The city will get an 20 percent increase in shared revenue or about $200,000 more from the state this year for a total of about $1.2 million. In addition to that one time increase there is 2.3 percent increase that uses a potion of the state sales tax to increase shared revenue each year. For Viroqua that amounts to an additional $27,000 or $28,000 next year.
Torres also identified some long term large projects the city has tackled in recent years and some that still need to be addressed.
Alderperson Steve Willis identified the priorities he would like to see addressed.
“I think the comprehensive plan is the perfect place to start with this budget,” Willis said. “As well as the website. I feel like it’s been talked about, and talked about, and talked about, it’s time to take some action on those. So hopefully we can budget for those items.”
Alderperson Tanja Birke asked that there be a closer look and how the city uses vehicles overall and if there could be some savings found in that area.
“I know that our departments run on very tight budgets,” said Birke. “And one of the things I wish that we could do if it’s possible is to really look hard at our Fleet, and when and how we’re using our vehicles. Whether we can save money in fuel costs. I think that that’s something that we need to look hard at especially as we go into the future, and it’s possibly a way we can save money so that the departments have more money for human resources, which I consider to be more important than vehicles.”
Alderperson Willis identified several other issues that constituents asked about. One was to look into the possibility of having a splash pad since the city has not had an outdoor pool since about 2005.
“I know I’ve had a couple people ask about if the city has a forester and if we don’t, if we could hire a forester?” asked Willis. “Specifically to look at tree health, not necessarily to take trees down, but just to make the ones that we have healthy. Those two things came up specifically. I know there’s probably a laundry list within Parks and Rec so I would also put forth that their budget does get increased so that we can do the necessary maintenance on our playgrounds that our kids play on, and bring those up to snuff.”
The city has been exploring options to address some play equipment in parks, specifically the “Dragon Park” or Eckhart Enchantment that was originally built mostly with donations and volunteer labor but in recent years has been in serious need of repair.
Alderperson Cyndy Hubbard said she would like to see more resources going to The Historical Society, who had given a presentation earlier in the meeting.
“I would like to see more money go to the Historical Society they do a lot with, we only give them a thousand dollars,” said Hubbard, “And they really do bring people to the town, and money to the town, and I think they deserve more support.”
Alderperson Todd Kirking asked for clarification from Birke and what she meant by examining city vehicle use.
“I’m just going to ask Tanya what do you mean by lesser vehicles,” asked Kirking. “Like, are you talking about police cars and fire, stuff like that?”
“I think that if we had a better idea of what our total fleet is and looked at it and saw the ways that we’re using our vehicles, that that might be a way that we could save money,” said Birke “It’s like just doing an audit on it and having a better idea, and looking at our policies about how we use our cars.”
“The like to have four wheel drives,” said Kirking. “They’re really nice for Wisconsin winters, better than a two-wheel drive vehicles because ice and snow. You get around a lot better with four-wheel drives than you can with two wheel drive”
“I drive all over the county every single day for my job and I have a front-wheel drive Chevy Bolt,” said Birke. “I have never had a problem.”
Birke also said she would like to see more money got to the fire department given their recent increase in the number of calls they have experienced.
“I will say I think we really need to look at our the increase in what our fire department is doing,” said Birke. “I think we need to take a hard look at the budget for the fire department and whether it’s sustainable to do that level of activity with the budget that they have.”
Torres asked for specific feedback on park and recreation issues that he said has been heard a lot lately. Specifically a desire to increase maintenance in the city parks and to add more programming.
“Well if it’s truly a balanced look, I think it’s appropriate to bring them up more too (Park and Rec department)” said Willis. “I’m not saying they have to have the same budget as everybody else it’s just they should have a little bit if everybody else is asking for a bump. I definitely think Parks and Rec should get a bump too. In that they’ve done a lot with the least for so long.”
Torres asked some of council members who had more history to weigh in on the Park and Rec budget.
“I mean historically when I was brought in there was some conversation about once upon-a-time budgets were tough and Park and Rec decided to fall on the sword and said you can take it out of mine,” said Torres. “And since that point they never have gotten back to the point where they could operate up a more robust department and do all the things that folks have been asking of them. John (Thompson) you’ve been here for a while, Cyndy (Hubbard), David (Tryggestad) you’ve all been on it. Is there merit to that? Is there a desire by the council to see a larger growth in that department, because I mean that’s that’s the sort of direction I guess I’m looking for the council is just in general. Would you like to see Park and rec, or any department brought up? Is there any other area where you would like to see more growth, or less growth?”
“I you know it’s always been the squeaky wheel gets the grease,” Alderman John Thompson said. “It’s also, every year every department feels they’re being slighted, and they want more. I don’t know how you really prioritize things. You just gotta see what there is to give around.”
“I you know it’s always been the squeaky wheel gets the grease,” Alderman John Thompson said. “It’s also, every year every department feels they’re being slighted, and they want more. I don’t know how you really prioritize things. You just gotta see what there is to give around.”
“Two things come to mind I don’t think that park and rec has always been the lowest funded,” said Hubbard. “I think of the libraries always kind of get ignored, and left for quite a few years. The last couple years we’ve made progress with the library. Park and Rec, it seems to me that it hasn’t always been spent across the board. It’s been focused more in certain sports. Certain events if you will, baseball. It’s very popular in this town, I know, but I’m just thinking if that was one of the things that always stuck in my mind was that it wasn’t maybe as balanced as it could have been.”
“Two things come to mind I don’t think that park and rec has always been the lowest funded,” said Hubbard. “I think of the libraries always kind of get ignored, and left for quite a few years. The last couple years we’ve made progress with the library. Park and Rec, it seems to me that it hasn’t always been spent across the board. It’s been focused more in certain sports. Certain events if you will, baseball. It’s very popular in this town, I know, but I’m just thinking if that was one of the things that always stuck in my mind was that it wasn’t maybe as balanced as it could have been.”
Mayor Justin Running spoke to his budget priorities.
“It’s hard to answer what Nate is asking.” said Running “I think we can all agree that every department has sacrificed, or given up, or done with less, or whatever over the years. I’ve only been in this seat, you know, a year and a few months and went through one budget cycle, and everybody has good valid needs or can justify what they’re asking for. But at the end of the day we can all agree that park and rec needs money and that playground needs to be rebuilt, but if we have to cut somewhere to take it, it’s hard to you know, it’s a struggle.”
“It’s hard to find extra money you know because you’ve got your annual revenues that are going to go up anyway,” said Alderperson Dave Tryggestad. “Your costs with your insurance and benefits, you know that’s a chunk every year too. And then find any extra money on top of that it makes things very difficult”
“It’s hard to find extra money you know because you’ve got your annual revenues that are going to go up anyway,” said Alderperson Dave Tryggestad. “Your costs with your insurance and benefits you know that’s a chunk every year too. And then find any extra money on top of that, it makes things very difficult”
“I guess part of my point is we have such we have tremendous department heads that have done more with less year after year with the inflationary expenses,” added Running. “And we haven’t seen big cuts of services or programs or things come. There’s been things that haven’t happened that we wanted to, but our department heads made it happen and you can only do that for so long before something significantly happens. And I don’t know if we’re there this year or not but it’s certainly worth keeping on your mind.”
The city budget team will meet two nights to discuss specific numbers with city department heads on Tuesday August 22 and Wednesday, August 23 as par to the process of shaping next years budget.
In other business the city council also filled or refilled a number seats on some standing committees and commissions.
The council approved the appointment of Lucy Danforth to the Historic Preservation Commission to replace Aaron Van Loo whose three-year term expires 10/1/2024.
The council also approved reappointment of Plan Commission members for three-year terms: Jan Rasikas (5/1/2026) and Richard Running & Stephanie Gauthier-Phillips (5/1/2025)
The council also approve the reappointment of Redevelopment Authority members whose terms have expired: Jan Rasikas (4/13/2025), Laura Meeks (4/13/2025), Amanda Warthesen (4/13/2026) and Chris Rozeske (4/13/2027).
The council also approved the reappointment of Mike Sebion to Airport Commission for six-year term expiring 9/1/2029.
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