10/20/22 FDL County Budget Message Delivered
20 October 2022 News
Fond du Lac County Executive Sam Kaufman delivered his first County Budget message to the County Board of Supervisors Tuesday night. Kaufman said it was a challenging year. He told the board that operational expenses have skyrocketed and some of the county sales tax money will go toward operational expenses. He said some of the projects they wanted to do have been moved down the road because they are not projects that the county has to do now. Some of the things that will continue from last year’s budget is a 2.5 percent increase in pay for employees. Kaufman said he wishes it could be more with inflation increasing at 8.5 percent. As for the sale tax he pointed out that compared to last year at this time the county has seen an 8.9 percent increase in sales tax revenues, but the county may not be able to count on that increase continuing throughout the year. But he does want to continue the $1 million allocation to be divided up by the county’s municipalities. He also says that they had to make a change in health insurance. The quote their current insurer gave the county was for a 19 percent increase in premiums which amounted to $2.4 million. Kaufman said to keep that insurer would have meant layoffs or very large increases in premium costs for employees which he is unwilling to do. So, the county will be going with Dean Health Care which quoted a 4.5 percent increase in 2023 and a single digit percentage increase for the next two years. Kaufman says they did make $4 million in cuts to the proposed budget but won’t sacrifice public safety. The county board will adopt the budget next month.
Share |