Clark County Board of Supervisors Hears Update on 2024 Budget

Thursday, October 12th, 2023 -- 11:01 AM

The Clark County Board of Supervisors heard an update on the 2024 budget.

For 2024, Clark County is looking at a tax levy, with the defrayed cost from the County’s sales tax, of $22,175,786 with a tax rate of 7.14. That’s a decrease over 2023’s rate of 7.53. So, a $100,000 home in Clark County will see a decrease of $39 for next year.

As Clark County has to do each year, they will have a short-term one month debt at $4,100,000 for Highway Roads. This year, the County plans on redoing:

• 8 miles of Highway G from Spencer Road to Colby Factory Road;
• 5 miles of Highway N from County Highway M to Sterling Avenue;
• 4.5 miles of Highway T from Bruckshlager Road to County Line Road;
• And 1.5 miles of K from State Highway 10 to Fremont Road.

Parts of the highway maintenance, not included in the debit, is to chip seal 18.55 miles of county roads including:

• 4.25 miles of Highway D from Highway N to Highway X;
• 5 miles of Highway M from Colby Factory Road to Highway MM/Capital Road;
• 2 miles of Highway N from State Highway 73 to County Highway D;
• 3 miles of Highway P from Highway K to Highway N;
• And 4.3 miles of Highway K from Highway K to Highway Q.

The County will also have additional short-term one month debt of $1,650,000 for:

• $100,000 - property insurance – qualified use of the debt;
• $300,000 – Maintenance capital assets;
• $680,000 – Forestry & Parks – pickup truck, UTV for forestry and parks, park mower, wood chipper, Bruce Mound tube lift, and parks capital expenditures– with this amount coming from the short-term one month debt the Finance Committee required the same amount would be transferred to General Fund for budget purposes;
• $250,000 – Sheriff - six replacement vehicles – normal rotation;
• $170,000 – ADS - kitchen remodel;
• And $150,000 – Information Technology – technology equipment refresh.

The Resolution for Debt would need to be passed on November 9th in order to fund the above. Some other projects happening in Clark County include various highway facility projects. In 2022 the Highway Department was approved to spend a total of $8 million for various highway facilities to be constructed over a 3 year period.

In 2022, approximately $1.2 million was spent. The balance of the project in the amount of $6.8 million was budgeted for the 2023 year. This is not an additional amount, but it is part of the original $8 million.

For the 2024 budget year, this is expected to be $1.2 million projected to be left on the $8 million debt for the building project. During the draw period, they would only be required to pay interest, which is at 2.95%. After that, they would then pay principal and interest for the balance of the term.

However, they are allowed to prepay amounts if they have extra that they could apply and not go over the previous year’s tax rate. They will be budgeting to prepay approximately $300,000 in principal in addition to the interest with some adjustments based on actual amounts.

Courthouse maintenance had in the 2022 budget $1.5 million for the possible cost for an upgrade to the HVAC system for the courthouse. No amount was spent in 2022. Due to the HVAC system potentially costing in excess of what was budgeted the amount was still available to be spent in 2023.

The amount was still available to be spent in 2023. The amount was repurposed to other needed projects. A portion of this amount up to $350,000 will be used for an upgraded dispatch center due to safety concerns during the 2022-23 year.

The balance of the amount was repurposed for the boiler. This amount is funded by the American Rescue Plan Act and State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds. The Public Property Committee added $350,000 of levy money to go towards anticipated costs of the boiler.

During the adjustments of the Finance Committee, the Forestry and Parks Department offered $300,000 of its capital towards the project. The Board also approved the sale of county right-of-way land, .99 acres, in the Town of Mead at a cost of $4,455.

The Board also approved an earlier date for the November Annual Meeting. The meeting will now be on November 9th. Finally, the Board approved a resolution opposing any future COVID-19 mandates.

The resolution will be sent to the Department of Health Services and other officials in Madison. However, it’s mainly symbolic with no actual enforcement available.

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.