Peshtigo Town Board Sets Annual Meeting For Oct. 25

A Town of Peshtigo Budget Workshop was held Monday, Sept. 26 to balance and make adjustments to the 2023 proposed budget.
Treasurer Phil Noble said "For the 2023 proposed budget, Town Clerk Clarence Coble and I went through and reviewed the documents that we were provided by various funding sources, whether that was State or County. We populated the information as best we could or took the historical amount that was there and if there was no documentation, we reviewed and then put in that previous information. The general property taxes of $260,718 went up by roughly $438, taking the value and levy that was calculated at the bottom of the worksheet and those numbers were confirmed”.
Noble added, “The state shared taxes and revenues were provided to us and we slotted that into the budget. For the State aid transportation, we didn't have a specific document but the roads haven't changed and the funding mechanism and rates haven't changed so we are comfortable with the figures. The remainder of the budget is local fees or things that are generated out of the town office. We compared historical information and brought that forward into the proposed budget. One of the biggest changes to this year is the $38,000 Public Safety fees which was for reimbursement amount from Tyco that is going to go away. So when we look at the final numbers revenue, that is pretty much the amount we are down by. Everything else has stayed pretty constant or level from previous years to this year. We went from a budgeted revenue for 2022 of 963,633.45 down to $938,505.60 for 2023".
Chairperson Cindy Boyle commented, "Even though that Public Safety amount of $38,000 is a chart of that account, and is going to be gone, it is counter-reflected in the expenses too, so it is a net neutral”. Noble said, "Yes you are right, True statement, but my explanation was if you are revenue specific".
Fire Chief Mike Folgert announced the Fire Commission has not met yet, but he kept his proposed budget for 2023 the same as 2022 at $101,885. Folgert added. “I did supply the Treasurer with my budget report. Any line item expenses that changed will be adjusted and taken out of other line items within the budget. Most significantly I had to double the cost of fuel and increase the PPE equipment line item because the cost of the equipment sky rocketed. I took some of that out of the line item budget of fire prevention and communications categories which is unfortunate, but that is what I had to do. The only other change would be a discussion that needs to occur on capital funds. I do have a detailed expenditure list for each line item and when it comes to purchasing of needed items they are included in the budget".
With the proposed budget coming in over budget by $51,000, cuts needed to be made to various line item budgeted items based on prior historical budget figures of previous expenditures. Various cuts include: General Building and Plant - Town Garage Electrical from $700 down to $600 and Administrative Town Hall from $15,100 down to $10,000; Bridges and Culverts from $10,000 down to $5,000; Snow and Ice Removal from $140,000 to $93,000 and Ditching and Brushing from $23,000 down to $22,000. There were also two line items that had a budget amount for 2023 with no historic history expenses to support the line item: Ongoing was a line item of $500 with no expense history since 2019 so that was removed as well as a Payroll expense with no historic expense history for an amount of $1,461.18 in 2022 which that amount was also removed.  
With the board wanting to make the proper adjustments, review the changes that were made, along with waiting for the DOT Grant that should be coming in at anytime, as well as a seminar that Noble will be attending with questions he will be addressing of certain line items of state shared revenue and expenses that were provided by the State, the decision was made to push out the Town meeting. All of that reasoning combined could impact the outcome of the final budgeting process, so that being said, the date of the Town Annual Meeting will be rescheduled to Tuesday, Oct. 25 at 6:30 p.m., one week after the regular Town Board Meeting of Tuesday, Oct. 18.