(Juneau) Dodge County Administrator Cameron Clapper says it was his goal to streamline the budgeting process when hired around two-years ago. In the Fall of 2022, it took the county board nearly eight hours to get the 2023 budget to a vote. Most of that time was spent discussing a total of 41 different amendments.
Clapper says his desire was to open up the lines of communication in an effort to minimize confusion and frustration. He says in his opinion, this year’s budget meeting was a success.
“Fast forward now to 2024…we had the budget presented [and] there were four amendments…two ultimately did not pass and then other two were actually more related to policy and so they were deferred to other committees…but it’s been a really good discussion,” says Clapper. “And the meeting itself…the first meeting I had [in 2022]…gosh, it was almost like an eight hour day just sitting in the meeting…it was evening time before we were finished…and this last month we finished in about two hours.”
The 2025 budget came in at $196-million-dollar and includes a tax levy of $36-million. The mill rate of $3.50 per-one-thousand-dollars of assessed value is a seven-cent drop from what taxpayers saw in the current budget year.
