FDL City Budget Approved Without Tapping Into Undesignated Funds

The Fond du Lac City Council approved the 2015 City Budget and Tax Levy Wednesday night without touching $1.5 million in undesignated funds in the City fund balance. City resident Brian Kolstad (pictured) urged the Council not to use the undesignated funds. He says as a property owner he wouldn’t mind having more money in his pocket, but he also doesn’t want to see the City’s future jeopardized by introducing unnecessary restrictions to the budget. Council President Sam Meyer said he could understand City residents’ point of view about using the undesignated funds. Meyer favored using $800,000 of those funds to reduce capital expenses for 2015, which would have lessened borrowing but the Council did not opt for that. City Manager Joe Moore says the Council did come away with a clearer picture of the general fund and how it will help them pay an escalating debt load through 2019. The Council did amend the budget to use $255,000 of the undesignated funds to help Marian University with their $5 million purchase and conversion of the Nielsen Building. They also included a small adjustment for the state’s expenditure restraint program. The tax rate will be $8.93 per thousand dollars of value on a property an increase of 45 cents.