(Juneau) Thursday we covered a number of approved changes the Dodge County Board made to the 2023 budget, Friday we look at the amendments that failed to pass. That includes an effort to strip the Veterans Service Office of a full-time staff member. The department had run the past three years with two-people. Supervisor David Guckenberger says now is the time to “reconfigure” the office and believes it can be done while still providing excellent service to veterans.
“Given the fact that we have a vacant position…we will not be terminating anybody in order to make this thing happen we just wouldn’t be hiring a replacement so it’s an opportune time to take advantage of this,” says Guckenberger. He adds that the county should, “try [to] operate the Veteran’s Service Office like we did for 50 years before this.”
Some board members suggested that the county administrator should determine if eliminating the position is the best course of action while others argued that the role is a benefit to the county.
Another attempted change to the budget sought to withdraw the county from the Wisconsin Counties Association. The organization offers insurance programs, grant development, and consulting services for its members. Supervisor Steve Kauffeld says the WCA does not approach the value system of middle America.
“When you have federal wokeness streaming down through the major players into our local governments it tends to not to reflect the values and the culture that we hold near and dear in the interior part of the United States,” says Kauffeld.
It costs just over $13-thousand-dollars in annual dues to be a member. Several supervisors did point out that the WCA helped the county get its American Rescue Plan Act funding after running into issues receiving the money.
Another proposed amendment would have cut expenses by 1.7-percent across all departments. It would have freed up just over $1.5-million-dollars to be spent on operations instead of the original plan to use sales tax dollars. Supervisor Rob Boelk, who forwarded the amendment, said using the sales tax fund in this manner is not sustainable.
“I moved to this county 20-some years ago because I love this county…I’ve dedicated over 10 years of my life to this public service,” says Boelk. “If I didn’t think that we needed to do something this drastic I would not have made an amendment change. I don’t make amendment changes but I did this time because I believe that much we need to do something sooner than later.”
Other board members maintained that services crucial to the health and safety of county residents would be impacted if the change was approved while some said a request like this should have come earlier in the budget process.
The board also voted down an amendment to defund the Human Resources director position.
The mill rate of $3.96 per thousand-dollars of assessed value is down 82-cents from the current budget year, while county property values are up 15-percent to $8.6-billion-dollars. The $149.8-million-dollar document includes a tax levy of $36-million, which is up roughly $300-thousand-dollars from 2022.
