Tuesday's Kewaunee County Board meeting will focus a lot on where your tax dollars will go over the upcoming year.
Before Tuesday's regularly scheduled board meeting, Kewaunee County officials will host a public hearing on the 2025 budget. During last month's meeting, Kewaunee County administrator Jeremy Kral gave the board a peek at the budget as a part of his report. Thanks to an increase in equalized property values, Kewaunee County is proposing a 1.4 percent levy increase and a tax rate decrease of about 9.1 percent over last year.
One item that will not be included in the budget is an increase of $20,000 in county funding for the Kewaunee County Economic Development Corporation. The item failed to get out of committee during a meeting held on October 4th. During last month's open comment period at the Kewaunee County Board meeting, KCEDC Chairperson and Bluewater Services owner John Mastalir requested that the supervisors approve the organization's funding to go up from $40,000 to $60,000. Mastalir cited the rising costs of doing their work for the $20,000 increase despite the increase in donations from individuals and businesses and expressed fears the KCEDC may cease to exist as they try to address affordable housing and workforce development. During the county's finance committee meeting held earlier this month, members questioned why the organization received funding at all, let alone an increase.
The public hearing will take place at 6 p.m., ahead of the normal county board meeting. During the actual meeting, the board will hear reports from Kral and KCEDC Executive Director Ben Nelson and approve a new collective bargaining agreement with its sheriff's department, a budget adjustment for the public health department, and county conservation aids for use at Bruemmer Park.
