Buechel Talks County Budget

The Fond du
Lac
County

Board approved a 2019 budget during a meeting last week. The budget includes a
security checkpoint and room to cover new patrol deputy positions, among other things.
County Executive Allen Buechel tells us he
usually waits a while longer than most counties before even starting the
process of building the budget. 

Buechel says waiting a while allows them to find “the trend
for the year, where we’re at, is much more accurate. Doing June versus doing
August or September, so that’s why I like to incorporate those months, to do a
better job of budgeting for the following year.”

Buechel adds that the mill rate also dipped a bit, so “there’s no properties that will bear a big tax increase from the county this year – and that drove the rate down because property values are rising as well. So it’s all a matter of the property values versus the level of taxation.”

When it comes to the budget itself, Buechel points out that there aren’t too many big changes. 

He says “it was
pretty much a cost to continue budget. We didn’t add or subtract at all from
the standpoint of the services that we provide – we did provide one more social
worker for those who need more services for children, that does increase
capacity a little bit – but that’s a positive. As far as negatives, we really
didn’t cut any services to people, we will continue our infrastructure, parks,
trails, as well as highways, improving buildings, and of course court security
is for the people overall.”

In general, Buechel believes “all-in-all it’s a pretty positive budget, and that’s why we had no one at the public hearing – because they tend to come when there’s things that change, and this year there was almost none of that.”