Richfield Today
Supports "for a country way of life"                   
On any given day this site receives more than 150 hits
  • Welcome
  • About Us
    • Quote of the Day
  • RT Blog
  • Governments
  • Contact Us
  • Links
  • Events Calendar

$2.68 million of county sales tax earmarked for capital projects

7/22/2014

0 Comments

 
Proposal forwarded for full County Board approval
By DAVE RANK 
Daily News 

Agreeing to Washington County Manager Joshua Schoemann’s revised budgeting process, two committees of the County Board settled on a recommended Capital Improvement Program requesting $2.68 million in local sales tax money for capital projects next year.
 The county projects it will receive $9.2 million from the 2015 half-cent sales tax and plans to use more than $5 million to reduce the property tax levy in the next budget and another $1.1 million for its Revolving Loan fund, which is administered by the nonprofit Economic Development Washington County.

The Executive and Finance committees liked Schoemann’s proposal to separate the economic development contributions from the Capital Improvement Program, which was created to plan for facility repairs and construction projects.

“I’ve been saying for years our capital improvement plan has become too many things,” Finance Committee member Daniel Stoffel said.

Stoffel is a county supervisor from the town of Kewaskum, and a former member of the Executive Committee, which oversees the CIP.

Under Schoemann’s budgeting plan, the use of county sales tax each year will be broken down into three categories: Property tax levy reduction, CIP and economic development.

For 2015, sales tax money allotted to each line item:
■ Levy reduction, $5.42 million (59 percent);
■ CIP, $2.68 million (29 percent);
■ Economic Development, $1.1 million (12 percent).

Previously, the county had allocated 60 percent of budgeted sales tax revenue for tax levy reduction and 40 percent for the CIP, which included economic development contributions.

Additional sales tax money unused in past years also will be allocated to the CIP projects.

Schoemann said the new allocation system will provide a more transparent report on spending to the board and the public.

The CIP now will go to the full County Board for final approval.
$1 million sought for Impact Fund

Washington County is preparing to inject another $1 million to its Impact Revolving Loan Fund this year to deal with an influx of potential business development projects being negotiated by the Economic Development Washington County.

The Executive Committee agreed Monday to recommend moving $1 million from the county’s sales tax reserve to the Impact Fund, which is administered by the EDWC.

Details behind the request for additional funding were discussed in closed session with only the recommendation vote conducted in public session.

The resolution now goes to the board’s Finance Committee for consideration and must go to the full County Board in September, County Board Chairman Herb Tennies said.

The EDWC is an independent economic development organization created by the county that works on business and industrial growth in Washington County.

“This would be an additional 2014 allocation. Currently, we have $1 million in the Impact Fund,” EDWC Executive Director Christian Tscheschlok said. “There are several projects in the closing phase.”

The board may be ready to announce up to three of those projects by the end of August, he said.

Those project negotiations, if they are successfully concluded, will require nearly all $1 million now in the Impact Fund, Tscheschlok said, and that could hinder efforts to push through additional projects also being negotiated by the EDWC.

Tscheschlok said it is EDWC policy not to discuss specific projects until agreements are worked out. But, he said, “We currently have 44 projects in our pipeline already. Last year we had 56 total.”

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    About

    RT Blog will let you know the latest happenings around Richfield.

    Archives

    February 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    2014 Election
    2015 Election
    2016 Election
    2017 Election
    2018 Election
    2019 Election
    2020 Election
    Business News
    Government Topics
    Just News
    Local Events
    Political Posts

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos used under Creative Commons from xbouwman, Pink Sherbet Photography, rumimume, VLMPO, roberthuffstutter, andreavallejos, steakpinball