Village budget hearing - lower levy approved

September 8

After taking care of legal procedures, the Exeter Village Board dove into their annual budget hearing on Tuesday, September 8^th. One member of the public attended the meeting, which was open to the public as all meetings are.

Rachel Jacobsen, from the accounting firm Mireau and Co., presented the 2009-2010 budget to the village board and fielded questions from board members and the public.

“The bottom line,” according to Jacobsen, “is that the levy will go down from 65.6 to 63.4 cents. The sales tax saved you there with $20,000 more in sales tax receipts than the bond payment. If it ever comes to a point where the sales tax doesn’t cover it (the bond payment) then the levy will have to go up. We estimate that you will have $100,000 in sales tax receipts every year.”

Chairman Alan Michl noted that the bond payments for the pool will only be interest the first two years and then in 2012 will be $110,000.

When a question was raised about the possibilities of property tax going down, Michl pointed out the county assessors office has recently reevaluated property in town resulting in a $800,000 increase in values in the village, “While there has been a slight decrease in the levy, property valuation has gone up,” said Michl.

Several board members had questions on the additional amount in the reserve of the budget, which Jacobsen explained, “given economics right now it was a good idea to bump up the reserve. If you have some sort of catastrophe in town you have the budget padded for it. We underestimate the revenue and overestimate expenditures.”

When there were no further questions from the audience or board members, the hearing was adjourned and the board started the special meeting in which they passed the resolution to adopt the budget and request $136,000 from the county in taxes.