NEW BERLIN – The Village of New Berlin unanimously adopted a $789,618 budget last week, with no increase in taxes for the 2011-12 fiscal year.
“We’ve pulled a little a bit of funding out of unappropriated funds and trimmed the fat as best we could. As a board we felt it was important not to increase the burden on local taxpayers. Given all the financial challenges people are facing, we didn’t think it was right for the village to add to them,” said Mayor Wade Schrag.
The budget will spend $89,618 more than last year, but only slightly increases the amount raised for taxes, through some modified property assessments, from $337,242 in 2010-2011 to $338,625 in 2011-2012.
Schrag said the board did not eliminate any positions in the village but explained a combination of efforts, mainly through increased shared services with the Town of New Berlin and private billing for the paid New Berlin Ambulance service, accounted for additional savings.
While Schrag said the board did not increase the $12.12 per $1,000 of accessed property tax rate, he said some new assessments may cause a slight increase in some households. “That’s really beyond our control,” he said.
The New Berlin Ambulance service was funded by the same amount it was last year, $98,750, but more than $72,250 of that was paid for by private medical insurance. The remainder is paid by the village, and the Towns of Columbus and New Berlin.
The service began operating with paid staff 24 hours, seven days a week, in January and Schrag said since the service was privatized, the cost of providing coverage to the area actually cost taxpayers less than it had in prior years.
Though not an issue for this budget, Schrag said an approaching concern for the village could be replacing the New Berlin Fire House in the next few years.
“At some point in the future, the village will have to examine the idea of a new fire station. The floors and walls of the station are showing the signs of their age and cracking,” he said.
Schrag said the station was built on the concrete foundations of a former tannery. He said with time, the soil beneath the concrete has settled, leaving gaps beneath it. He explained the weight from the heavy vehicles and equipment kept in the station were causing the floor to crack above those open spaces.
Schrag said he and the Town of New Berlin had held preliminary discussions about creating a single public service building to house both the town and village’s public services including fire, ambulance, police and other offices to help save costs. Schrag, who decided not to run for reelection earlier this month for health reasons, said any further plans would have to be moved forward by the new mayor-elect and board.
He also said the cost of doing regular business continued to rise at a concerning pace, citing unpredictable fuel and energy costs.
“It affects everything in a small way and adds up to a lot. Something people might not think about, for example, is that increased fuel costs can greatly impact what we pay to have things delivered to us, either medical supplies for the ambulance or equipment for the highway department. It just costs more to do just about anything,” he said.