Tax Rate Rises Slightly in New City Budget

A proposed budget for the City of Fond du Lac would see a small increase in the tax rate. The budget will be officially published next week. City Manager Joe Moore says the tax levy is going up higher than the tax rate – but that’s a good sign for the city. 

He explains that it’s “a tax rate of $9.84, which is an increase of 1.9 percent. People might ask me ‘how can that be? How can the levy go up five percent but the tax rate only 1.9 percent?’ It’s because the beautiful thing is – Fond du Lac is growing. The equalized value – the number with billions of dollars has gone up tens of millions of dollars year over year.”

Moore also points out that the city is working to drive a number of projects through tax incremental financing districts, but says “I would agree that you shouldn’t fund things that are going to happen
anyway. So that conference center was city interest. We drove that project. We
asked the Holiday Inn to do that. It wouldn’t have happened. Just using that as
example. The Retlaw wouldn’t have happened if you had not authorized that
development agreement, so that’s really important to remember.”

Moore add that those ‘TID’ projects are also “not affecting property taxes for residential homeowners either
because that transaction is all about the increment of that TID. No-one in the
City of Fond du Lac is personally supporting with their property taxes, the
conference center at the Holiday Inn.  So
I think that’s really important for people to know.”

The budget also plans for more street paving and maintenance – along with construction of a roundabout at Rienzi Road and Fond du Lac Avenue, and replacing the Arndt Street bridge. It also includes funding for a security checkpoint at the city/county government building.