Oshkosh Council proposes 1.2% levy
Decrease for 2025 budget

A public feedback session on the proposed budget is slated for Nov. 6 and you better be there

by Kris4Osh
published 10.30 at 1 p.m.

Friends, this seemed like a more interesting way to share this week’s update on Council meetings. It appears folks just LOVE to share newspaper articles, even if the headline articles don’t always contain all of the pertinent details. At least this way, the most important part will be right out front IF this article gets shared around (hint hint).

Your Council met for 8 hours this week both Monday and Tuesday to go over the proposed 2025 operating budget. There are a handful of videos if you’d like to watch, too many to link (again, it approaches 16 hours) so here is link to Oshkosh Media page instead.

This was the first budget session I was a part of, (though I typically do watch the meetings), and I really was impressed hearing about all of the work each individual department does throughout the year and their plans for next. I will likely have other updates for you from this and next meeting at some point, (and maybe this is the new winning format, so stay tuned:) )…but for today, I’d like to focus on the numbers, as that is ultimately the most important part.

Sticking to the idea that the headline IS important: Yes, after much deliberation and good discussion, Council recommendation to staff amounts to a ~1.2% DECREASE in levy from 2024. The 2.83 % recommended increase really was a modest place to start (and I appreciate staff’s effort to get to it), however, your councilors also know that on account of the recent revaluation there is a lot of concern over what the new home values do to your actual tax bills, which is why, ultimately, we are requesting a levy decrease. The proposed budget had a proposed rate of $8.45. Council is requesting a rate of $8.12. The latter rate equates to a levy decrease of $566400 over 2024 budget. (I’m gonna get into some nerdy math things in a second, but one more point if you want to skip that as it’s important):

The $8.12 rate number is, at this point, a recommendation from Council. We did not give specific instructions to staff as to how to get there, but they do have some options. At current, your general fund is valued at a higher percentage than is called for by city rules. Using some of those funds to lower your tax bill is certainly an allowable use, though one that may make it harder to budget in subsequent years. Those funds could be used to pay off debt, or in lieu of taking on more debt. Those uses could also serve to lower your tax bill. The 11/6 meeting will be the time for you to weigh in and hear these things being decided in person, and I really do hope you will attend (6:00, room 404, City Hall). I’ll keep you updated, but it’s your right to be there (and you have heard me lament the fact that typically, not many folks show up…and we should!). (If you want to skip out, now is fine…the rest of this will be about how council and staff arrived at the rate of $8.12).

By now everyone should know that Oshkosh underwent a revaluation of all of our properties in 2024. It’s a scary process as pretty much all of the amounts went up. This is pretty easy to understand, as we all know property is more valuable now than ever it has been, particularly residential property. By now everyone should ALSO know that the commercial portion of this revaluation failed to meed state specs. This means that 1. We need to do it again in 2025, and 2. that because the residential portion of our revaluation DID meet state specs, the proportionate share of tax liability shifted, in our case, in a knowable and demonstrable manner, to residential property owners. That is by every definition unfair, and to a number, all 7 of your councilors do not want to see residential property owners unfairly punished by a simple mistake.

Here’s where it gets a little more mathy and interesting. Whether our revaluation failed or not, there is, nationally, a greater increase in residential values than commercial. There is no real way to tell what that proportional number would have been in the case of Oshkosh, but absolutely fair to presume that some of the burden would have shifted to residential anyway. To account for this, at staff’s recommendation, Council used an equalized value worksheet that presumed the full value of both residential and commercial was at 100%. Through this, based on new total valuation (if you’re keeping score, it’s up to $5.7B), the most equitable and fair rate is that $8.12 number.

This is not perfect, nor is there any way to make it perfect. The aim was that increases in a shift in value not equate to increases that are supposed to be only based on value (hope that makes sense). And yes, if you are continuing along in the math, this SHOULD mean that when revaluations are done again next year, that the ratio of value of commercial and residential equalizes some more. The efforts this year are really to prevent a massive swing up in residential that is not reflective of the total makeup of our total value. I, and seemingly all of your Councilors, are absolutely on board with this, and I feel it is a very fair solution (and VERY glad we got there).

Hope that helps to both explain and alleviate any fears. As always, any questions/concerns/comments I am all ears. And again, would be great to see you at budget hearing next Wednesday, 11/6, 6PM room 404, your City Hall

thanks for reading,

-kris

LOCAL

OSHKOSH-Residents may see rare decrease in levy