Good afternoon, 

I wanted to send out a quick reminder of the public hearing on the 2022 budget tomorrow, November 3 at 6:00 p.m. You can attend in person in council chambers or call (920) 832-6443 to register to attend virtually. 

We had our meeting to review the budget on Saturday. It’s technically a Finance Committee meeting so only the members of that committee vote, but all council members are invited and can ask their questions. In the past this meeting has lasted all day – we went from 8:00 a.m. until around 6:00 p.m. in 2019 (my first year on Common Council). However, starting last year, we were encouraged to send our questions in writing ahead of the meeting and the Council President and the Mayor’s staff assembled all of those questions so that most of us had our questions answered before the meeting. Each department head presented their budgets, most of which were very little changed from last year, other than reporting of the CARES act funds (that was the funding for COVID-19 mitigation that came to the city in the first COVID-19 relief bill, along with the stimulus checks to individuals) and the start of the library project. Last year’s budget was in turn very similar to the 2019 budget, to the point that “status quo” was mentioned so often during last year’s Budget Saturday that my neighbor leaned over last Saturday to ask me what department I thought would use it first for 2022. (The answer – Attorney Behrens for the Legal Department) This year we were finished with our review by lunchtime. If anyone would like to get the full list of questions and answers, please let me know and I will send them to you. The full budget can be seen here:  

https://www.appleton.org/home/showpublisheddocument/24288/637691900803870000

 I believe that the mayor and city staff have done a good job with this budget and the capital improvement plan (for long-term projects such as road construction and other infrastructure and buildings) to start getting the overall general fund debt back on a flatter trajectory. 

 

This budget includes a small merit raise for city employees – really a necessity in these inflationary times when even the Social Security cost of living allowance is going to be larger than in quite a few years. Our health insurance costs (the city is self-insured) but the cost of the city’s other insurance is expected to increase fairly substantially based on the market conditions. 

The budget also includes a broad outline of the plans for the remaining ARPA funds.  

This is very much in line with what I heard in the two listening sessions where members of the public shared their input about where the money should be spent. 

Note that the budget amendment for the portion of the funds to be allocated to the 2021 budget once was recommended for approval with no changes in the Finance Committee last Monday and will be appearing on the council agenda again this Wednesday. 

Overall, the city portion of the tax bill will cause an increase of about $23 for the median valued home in the city next year. 

Please let me know if you have questions or comments, or if you would like a copy of the compiled list of budget questions and answers from members of the Common Council. The council will be voting on the 2022 budget on November 10. 


 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Half-Flip or Full-Flop?

Image
Greetings District 6 Neighbors, The website PolitiFact, maybe better known for their “Truth-o-meter” where they rate the statements of politicians from “True” all the way to “Pants-on-Fire”, also maintains a “Flip-O-Meter” where they rate changes in political positions on a scale of “No-Flip”, “Half-Flip” or “Full-Flop.” I am not sure whether to give myself a half-flip or a full-flop on the request from Appleton Downtown, Inc. to install what is referred to as a “Selfie Sculpture” in Houdini Plaza downtown. When I was writing the newsletter on Sunday and Monday, I was just thinking that I didn’t like the looks of what they were proposing. Many of you agreed. As I watched the videos of the Appleton Public Arts and Parks and Recreation Committee meetings, I paid more attention to the memo from the Community Development Department regarding the Art in Public Places Policy, which really indicates that, after approval by the Public Arts Committee, what other council committees and the Commo...
Read more

Appleton Common Council District 6 Update for the Week of October 19, 2025

Image
  Greetings District 6 Neighbors, Waking up to rain and now watching the trees blow outside my “office” window reminds me that fall leaf collection for us in Zone 2 will start this week. The majority of us are in the vacuum zone (all but those folks in the area east of Oneida and east of Meade and north of Northland and south of Capitol) so will need to rake the leaves onto the terrace. Notes from the  Public Works Guide :  I need to clarify a statement about the budget from last week’s newsletter. The proposed city property tax increase of 1.6% would bring the TOTAL tax amount to $6.95 per $1000 of assessed value. Thank you to the sharp-eyed reader who pointed this out to me. Correcting another bit of misinformation floating around to those of you who live near or travel through the Richmond/Ridgeview intersection – the temporary signal at that intersection WILL be converted to a permanent traffic signal in 2026. The city has been awarded a grant from the Wisconsin Depar...
Read more

Appleton Common Council District 6 Update for June 4, 2025

Image
Greetings District 6 Neighbors, Although the calendar won’t make it official for a couple of weeks, I think summer is officially here. Friday is the last day of school for AASD (although FVL and Xavier schools are already done), the pools officially open this weekend, the first Thursday night concert at Jones Park is Thursday evening, the first downtown farm market is this Saturday, and the Brewers have gotten hot. We have a short-ish agenda for the Common Council this week due to the Memorial Day cancellation of Monday committee meetings. In addition to Wednesday evening’s council meeting, the Public Arts Committee met this morning (Wednesday, June 4) to discuss a request from the Trout Museum and artist Neo Medina (who has been involved in many of the murals around the city) to paint a mural inside the Red Ramp downtown. The work would be completed by students in the Trout Museum Spray Camp program, supervised by the artist. We also have a special Safety and License Committee meeting...
Read more